Lukas' Graduation Party

Yesterday, Lukas finished his reading lesson book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I checked with the blog, and I first started this book with Lukas in late 2006, so he was about 2.5 year old. We would do it for a week or two, then he wouldn't be interested enough, so we stopped and tried again in 3-4 months. For about the past 6-8 months, we've kept up with it pretty regularly...three to four times a week. This video shows him reading his last lesson...this is the second time he's read this story (it's a weird story about a blind man hunting a tiger!)




But about two months ago, he was quite eager to be done with the book (there aren't enough pictures, and they aren't in color) so I came up with a reward to motivate him to continue. I told him that when he finished the book, we would have a party at IHOP.

So the day he finished the book, we all went to dinner at IHOP. Lukas ordered pancakes and bacon, his favorite meal at IHOP. I often encourage him to try something else, but he's not interested. The way he varies the meal is by trying the different flavors of syrup...old fashioned, strawberry, blueberry and boysenberry. It was convenient that I didn't have to cook dinner, and it was extra convenient that kids eat free.

We are so proud of Lukas for finishing the book! The end of the book gives a list of 20 easily-found books to introduce after finishing the book, but someone also donated a bunch of readers to us, so we'll probably try that for a bit (there are plenty of pictures in the books) to see how it goes.

Ok, I'll admit that I'm really bragging. We're proud that Lukas reads so well. And there is a glimmer of hope that he will now try to read on his own, besides when we "make" him read...this week at Natalie's clinic, he read a Highlights magazine story with his own initiative. And he liked doing it (I think the color picture in the story made the difference).