Wilderness of Reading

One of my favorite things as a child (and as an adult too) was reading. I would get lost in my books and in the adventures they would invite me to be a part of. I hoped to create a love of reading in Eli too. We have always read to him, even in utero, and I think it really paid off. He had known his letters and sounds for awhile but didn't want to read-he wanted us to read to him. Then all of a sudden he got interested (maybe last summer or fall?) and started reading Bob books and sight words. Then he started reading labels and signs. Then easy books. Then in the past month or so his reading level has just exploded. The other night he read the whole Cat in the Hat book to me at bedtime (about 30 pages if you take out the pictures, 60 if you include pictures). And he's not afraid to try to read harder books. He has read some pages out of the Magic Tree House books and other chapter books. He will pretty much try to read anything. And it's really cool b/c he will go back and correct himself when he realizes he read something wrong. And I love listening to him figure out words. Our crazy English language makes no sense, so when he sounds out a word and it doesn't sound like a real word, he figures out what it is supposed to be. One morning he and Justin were walking to school and Eli brought a book with him and read it the whole way there. He reads in the car, at church, in restaurants, wherever-a lot of times I have to make him stop reading so we can go do something. Of course he still likes watching TV and playing games on my phone, but more and more time is being filled with him reading to himself. I'm hoping eventually he will love books more than technology. It could happen! The better he gets at reading, the more he wants to do it. I think this is my favorite milestone so far. I was worried about leaving the "little boy" phase, but I think we're going to have a lot of fun.