We have taken the course of better late than early – we have also taken a course leaning to the side of unschooling. This week – our just turned 8 year old decided he was going to read before his dad got back from a weekend trip to the Valley. He spent an hour and a half in his bed – and learned to read – without me- all the nerve! The next day he decided he was going to start to write reports – so he did. He’s written several of them now, here is one on the tripod fish:

So now we have about 2 dozen of these around the house, each one in better form than the next with more content and more time spent on the picture. Some of the text is copied, some is written out. He has questioned the spelling of the authors of the books, when it does not match his phonetic awareness – which is cute. For a tag point reference of progress – we are working on lap books and I had tears at the thought of writing out one liners – and now I have folded papers of several paragraphs. So – one more instance and testimony that yes, your children will learn – give them the tools, the time, the space, and share their joy!