Learning How to Read Rough Draft

Have you ever wondered what your most important educational tool is? Well I believe that the ability to read is the biggest advantage of life. Knowing how to read can help lay the ground work for the rest of your future.

This day was going to be like every other Saturday. I was going to get up, brush my teeth, and then go downstairs for breakfast. Saturdays were always my favorite. The whole family was home, and my mom always cooked breakfast on the weekend. As I walked down the newly carpeted stairs, I could smell my favorite breakfast ever, waffles! The aroma grabbed me and yanked me down the stairs, the strong smell of vanilla floated me into kitchen and plopped me on a stool at the breakfast bar. My mom knew me so well, she had already pulled the peanut butter and syrup out of the pantry. I instantly grabbed the freshest waffle, threw it on my plate and smothered it in peanut butter. Next came the waterfall of syrup creating a lake on the plate. As I took my first bite my mom says, “How would you like to learn how to read today?”

            Perplexed, I swallowed my enormous bite and responded, “Read? What do you mean?”

My mother trying to come up with something creative to trick me, “Like instead of me reading you a story at night, you could read one to yourself. It’s so much fun!”

Questioning my mom’s new idea, “By myself? Like I could read Magic Tree House every day? That would be awesome!” Little did I know it would be so difficult.

My mom continued with her weekend routine, cleaning the kitchen, washing the dishes. My father forced to brush the dog, and then proceed to clean the carpets to make sure there were no more “Buster Bunnies.” Once all the morning activities were out of the way, my mom pulled a box out of the closet with the words “Hooked on Phonics.” I had no idea what the words meant but I was about to find out!

To try and get me to focus, my mom brought me into our living room and opened up the Hooked on Phonics program. The freshly cleaned carpets felt so nice on my hands and feet that I almost fell asleep. My mom kept prompting me, running through the alphabet. I didn’t realize this was going to be such a long process, only being able to learn the sounds of uppercase and lowercase letters. I knew most of the letters, but didn’t really know what they sounded like. But this wasn’t even the hardest part, Saturday was long but pretty easy. Sunday was when we started putting the letters together.

Knowing the sounds of letters was a good start, but I didn’t know many words past mom and dad. My mom kept saying, “Sound it out honey.” I didn’t really know what that meant. But felt like I needed to put the information I learned Saturday, to use on Sunday. I started reading words like ingredients to a cake, “There is a c, an a, and a t. Cccc-aaaaaaa-t. Cat! It’s a cat!” It felt so good to get a word right, but I got so frustrated with words I couldn’t figure out. It was so easy to want to quit when I got words wrong. I felt so disappointed with myself, I thought my mom felt the same way, but she was always so positive and encouraging. When she could tell I was really down on myself she said to think about it and then she disappeared. I was confused because she had left, but I did what she said, I kept trying to figure out the words. My mom came back a minute or two later with popsicles! She knew that I loved the blue raspberry ones, so she prompted me by saying, “If you can get this word right I’ll give you half of this popsicle.”

I was determined and focused on getting that popsicle, so I sounded out the word again, “t-rr-u-cckk. Truck. Truck!” my mom then split the popsicle so there was half on each stick and gave me one half.

Trying to keep me focused, my mom said, “Good job Nash. Now I’ll give you the other half if you can read this whole sentence.”

Now this was a sentence that I had seen before, but I didn’t know what it said. Pondering the sentence, I got frustrated, but I knew I just needed to stay relaxed. I had tried to read the sentence four times already, every time getting hung up on what my mom called the “verb.” I knew I was talking about my dog, but what did he do? Looking at Buster, thinking about what he does every day, I remembered him playing around and jumping all over the place. I then took one more try at the sentence, I thought over every word very carefully. “The dog jumped on the bed.” My mother looked ecstatic! She was so proud, it was the first sentence I had ever read. She gave me the second half of the popsicle plus she said I could have another one after dinner!

            I was only able to read very basic sentences, but it was a work in progress. I tried reading everything after that Sunday, cereal boxes, and newspapers, anything I could find. Learning to read seemed like such a small success, but I as I look back, learning to read set the foundation for my education. Learning to read led to writing, then came comic books. Next came books for school. High school came around and I had textbooks to read. Now I’m in college and I find myself recalling this skill I learned almost twelve years ago.