Bennett Reading!

So I posted a short clip on facebook of Bennett reading.  I wanted to share a slightly extended version to show the progression of matching words, names to pictures etc.  I am so pleased with how it's going and even more thrilled that Bennett actually LOVES doing this!  He loves his "matching" as he calls it.

In the last few days I've added short sentences like "My name is Bennett" "I am 4"(I know, should have used "four" but I'm also trying to see if he recognizes numbers too).  He has picked this up within a day, recognizing these sight words with no problem.

The book I've been using was recommended by a my friend Ria (Ria is sooo good with stuff like this and her Matthew is doing fantastic because of it).  Here's the book….

As Ria recommended I went straight to chapter 8 and it's working!

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So here's the thing, (why this is so exciting to us)  you're told your baby has Down syndrome...you think the worst.  Trust me, you do at first.  So to see your child with Down syndrome start to read at the age of 4 is pretty darn exciting.  It just is.  It shows us that he can indeed learn (because when you get that diagnosis you pretty much feel like your child will never learn because you're in shock and that's all you can think about-my child will do nothing).  

And then to see him get excited about learning, well that's just the icing on the cake for me.  Bennett loves praise and loves getting "high fives" and "good job!".  I love that about him!

I hope this continues and I hope by the time he's ready for kindergarten he's reading right along with his peers.

Do I work harder in terms of education with Bennett than I did with my girls?  Yes.  And I always will have to.  But that's just how it is and I'm okay with that.  

Everything is going to be harder with him but I've always believed hard work pays off… 

We're so proud of you Bennett!!