I can’t remember a time before I knew how to read. In Kindergarten I remember that we had activity booklets that we went through for each letter of the alphabet, but I don’t remember it being particularly challenging to me. Reading and writing always came easily to me. It’s hard for me to accept sometimes that just because something is easy for me, it might not be easy for other people.

In this particular case, I’m thinking about my 3-year-old, Zoe. My friend Sara gave us some Christmas presents last night, and instead of waiting to open them on Christmas, Zac let her open them last night. (Sorry Sara, were we supposed to wait?) For Zoe, there were a couple of Dr. Seuss books, Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! and Green Eggs and Ham. Zoe loves Dr. Seuss books; she was given There’s a Wocket in My Pocket! for her birthday, which was a godsend because it kept her occupied when I had her sitting on the potty 10 minutes at a time during potty training.

I’m glad that Zoe loves Dr. Seuss, but i’m even more excited about the other set of books that Sara picked out for her. Zac and I have been talking for a while now about working with Zoe on reading. It’s perfect timing that Zoe now has the Bob Books: Set 1 Beginning Readers. They are published by Scholastic (anyone else remember and love Scholastic book order forms in middle school?) and are written by Bobby Lynn Maslen with illustrations by John R. Maslen.

We spent part of our afternoon reading together; Zoe climbed up on my lap and asked me to read the Dr. Seuss books to her, and then we moved on to the Bob Books. I have absolutely no idea how to teach a child how to read, but the Bob Books gave me an idea of where to start. Zoe already knows her alphabet (and in order), what sounds all of the letters make, and even recognizes a few simple words.

The first book we looked at, Mat, gave me a few ideas where to start. It tells a complete story using only 4 words: “Mat”, “Sam”, “sat”, and “on”. There’s a chart at the beginning to help the kids figure out all of the sounds, but Zoe is a bit more advanced than that. Patiently, I tried to help her sound out each letter in the word and then showed her how all of those sounds came together to form one word. I praised her when she figured out the word on her own, but she’s only 3 and sometimes has a short attention span.

I’m proud of what she accomplished today, and know that she is on her way. If your child can sing the ABC’s and knows what all the sounds of letters are, it might actually be time to teach him or her how to read.