Greta is Reading

Years ago, I picked up a collection of Dick and Jane stories at an antique store.  The stories at the start of the large book are the simplest with the ones at the end of the book a bit more complex.  Frankly, the "stories" at the beginning of the collection are not very interesting.  The pictures are much better than the words.  Usually when Greta pulls this book from her shelf, I flip straight to the back so that we can get into a more interesting story.  Last night, however, I decided to see if Greta could learn some of the words in the beginner stories.  Paul and I were talking about summer plans for Greta and Wyatt a few days ago, and Paul said, "Let's get Greta reading this summer."  Last night we began with story number one (and I quote): 

 

Dick

Look, look.

   Oh, oh, oh.

Look, look.

Oh, look.

 

 I pointed to each word and read that first little story to Greta and then had her read it back to me.  She did!  Very easily.  Each new story builds on the one before it and adds a new word or two.  We got about five stories in, and then we went to sleep.  Tonight at bedtime, Greta brought Dick and Jane out again.  This time, we got about ten stories in.  By the time she went to sleep, Greta could read this one:

 

Tim

Jump up, Baby.

Jump up.

Up, up, up.

Jump up.

Come up, Tim.

Come up.

Up, up, up. 

Come up.

Look, Dick, look.

See Baby and Tim.

Funny Baby.

Funny Tim.

 

This is all very amazing to me.  Greta has been memorizing whole books nearly word-for-word for about a year.  But this is different.  For these two nights, Greta is reading.  The stories are so simple that they do not lend themselves to memorization.  She puts her finger under each word and reads them.  On occasion, she makes the sound of the first letter to get her started with the word.  Greta gets hung up on "Dick" almost every time.  But she has never faltered on "funny".  The world is about to completely unleash for Greta and I love watching it happen.