All Those Years of Faithfully Watching Sesame Street Have Paid Off

Now that The Girl can read, we are running into some wonderful things...and some not so wonderful things...

Wonderful Thing#1: She can read stories to her brother. This comes in especially handy when I am not so ready to go and get The Little Man out of bed in the morning, but he is very ready to have some company. It buys me the 10 minutes I need to wrap my brain around the day in front of me. It also works well after nap time for the same reason.

Oh yea, and we also used it tonight before bed time while hubby and I finished up some chores before we could put the kids to bed.

Wonderful Thing #2: When we went to the Zoo for The Little Man's birthday, I didn't have to read all those placard things in front of each exhibit to her. It was beautiful. If she wanted to know a little more about the feeding habits of the Kimono Dragon, she just went right over to a placard and figured it out herself. Then she would come back with all sorts of interesting info to share with the whole crew.

Not So Wonderful Thing #1: This goes right along with the Zoo, since my girl loves her science books, she can read to herself stuff I have been skipping over for the last few years. You know, like what Male and Female species like to *ahem* do together. I still try to skip over those parts in the books, but since she can read, and is following right along with me, she lets me know right away when I've missed something, or to tell me, "That's not what it says, Momma!"

I have to keep a close eye as to what she picks up now when we are at the library.

Not So Wonderful Thing #2: Goes right along with above item, sometimes, I skip parts of the story because I WANT TO. I am tired and ready for bed and the book is taking FOREVER to get to the point. My girl has no appreciation for skimming, and now I am totally busted and can't skim without being called out for it.

Wonderful Thing #3: Since she can read, I can tell her, "I don't have time for this part right now, but feel free to read it on your own during quiet time."

And she does.