This journey started when T1 was born.  DH and I were readers, so we read to T1, we read around T1 (being good examples) we bought him books… a LOT of books.  He did love us to read to him always, but he never seemed to love reading on his own. 

It was a real struggle for him.  We kept hoping he would outgrow it, because how could we possibly have a child that didn’t love reading?  1st grade…. still struggled, 2nd grade still struggling.  I did some research, what were my options…

Tutoring places, change schools, change grades, cognitive therapy. 

We decided to go with 3 of the above.  We started with the cognitive therapy at Learning RX.  This was a HUGE time commitment, not to mention a LOT of money… no I mean A LOTTTTT of money.  But frankly the harder part for me was the time, we went there 3 times a week for almost 2 hours each time, not easy with a baby.   But we started last May and time passed, the program is supposed to be 6 months, so I figured by the end of October we would be done.

We decided to take T1 out of Montessori and put him in public school thinking more structure might help, we also decided to put him in 2nd grade again… a great review year. 

Summer passed and it was hard to judge his progress as he wasn’t at school and he was doing so much work at Learning RX we didn’t force the reading at home.   DH would still read to him each night as he usually did.

School started, he loves his new school, his teacher, his friends.  Suddenly about the end of September he enjoys reading.  It just clicks. It is truely magical.  He is almost 9… maybe it would have happened had we done nothing, but for whatever reason he now loves to read.

Due to vacations, switching instructors and a whole lot of other things we didn’t finish Learning RX until the very end of December.  But we were done and I was thrilled with the progress he had made.  Honestly when we started a year ago T2 (who was in Kindergarten) could read almost as well as T1.  Now T1 is a better reader (T2 is still a great reader, but T1 is reading 5th grade books with no problems)

Tonight as I tuck him in bed, he has a book in his hand.  He now reads a chapter book each night.  He takes after me.  He read the book Holes in a 24 hour period.   He likes to finish what he starts, ASAP!  He says, “I love books!  They are so great.  Can you imagine a world without books?  How sad.” 

So this is my little miracle.  Maybe it was a couple thousand dollar miracle, but it was worth every penny!  Maybe he would have loved to read had we done nothing, but knowing T1 and how he has developed from birth, he is the kind of kid that needs things shown to him in very specific ways, so I think for him the Cognitive Therapy really is what helped make everything click and now he loves to read!