Learning How to Read

Have you ever wondered what your most important educational tool is? Well I believe that the ability to read is the biggest advantage in life. Knowing how to read can help lay the ground work for the rest of your future. With the ability to read comes the ability to write. With these skills come numerous amounts of potential to thrive in today’s society. For example, I am writing my first college essay, and my writing skills are all directly linked to my reading ability. Without learning how to read, I never would have gone to kindergarten, and I definitely would not be where I am today.

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 said, “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 tried 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!”

I questioned 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, she cleaned the kitchen, and washed the dishes. My father was forced to brush the dog, and then proceed to clean the carpets to make sure there were no more “Buster Bunnies.” After 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!

In order to get me to focus, my mom brought me into our empty 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 going to be difficult, on Sunday 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. I felt the need 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 frustrated easily 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! My favorite flavor is blue raspberry, it’s so sweet, yet it is also a bit sour, giving a wide range of flavor. Plus the popsicle left a vibrant blue on my lips and tongue, which for some reason made me feel like a super hero. My mom knew I loved the blue raspberry flavored popsicles. Holding up a fierce blue popsicle, 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 attentive, 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 wasn’t sure what it said. Pondering the sentence, I got frustrated, but I knew I just needed to stay relaxed. I had already 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, magazines, and newspapers. Anything I could find that had words, I would try and read from top to bottom. Every weekend we would practice reading. Every time I worked on reading, it became easier and quicker.  Learning to read seemed like such a small success, but as I look back, learning to read set the foundation for my education. Learning to read led to writing, then came kids’ 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.

            Without this experience I would never have done well in school. I would have never been able to read books for school, and definitely never would have been able to write a strong, cohesive essay. I credit a lot of my education to my caring parents. My parents have always been by myside, helping me when they can, and pushing me to be the best student I can be. So for that, I thank you mom and dad, you mean the world to me!