Aims, our teachers can speak to the learning aspects so I will only address this from a parent view. Emeline will learn to read, but she may never be into it. We are all different. My son Brendon was reading at a crazy early age and falls asleep with his face in a book every night. Bobby has never voluntarily read a book. Bobby also replaced a door knob for me last night and replaced the faucets in the kitchen; he cooks and follows recipes. Brendon would look at me like I was from Mars if I suggested he use a screwdriver and his cooking skills involve opening a frozen pizza box.

As readers we encourage our children to share our love for books, but they might not ever get into it. Encourage her, but don't be crushed if she doesn't get the bug. I did find that Bobby will be more willing to read non-fiction if it is a subject of interest. I don't think he will ever understand why we read fiction.

My two cents.

Can she sing the alphabet song and draw letters?

Oh yeah. She's been doing that for a few years now.

don't know how strict you guys are about screen time

Not very at all.

could she be persuaded to play reading games on the computer to help her practice?

When vw bug was in town, she showed us this awesome website that Emeline has been playing a lot. I'll look around for some other computer games for my laptop that she can do.

We're also going to start up with a "homework time" next week for the hour right after school. I'm going to get some home schooling books on math and reading and writing and her and Joe can work on them for an hour after school to help build her skills and get her in the habit of doing homework right after school. Hopefully, that will help, too.

I know we're being totally fruitcakey about this and she is brilliant as she is, but hey - if we can't throw our issues onto our kids, how the hell else are we supposed to burden them?

Emeline will learn to read, but she may never be into it.

I know this in my brain, but man does it make my heart yowl a little bit.

One of my sisters didn't read for pleasure until she was in her twenties. (Of course, she was also the only one of us with any kind of social skills, so it's possible she was just out having friends while the rest of us hid in our rooms and read. We still thought she was weird.)

[eta that she is now a social worker/therapist working with foster kids while the rest of us are in the entertainment industry. So still freakishly un-nerdy, but undeniably doing more good for the world than her geeky sibs! Until our brother finally gets a job and cures cancer, I mean.]

Plus, we are totally suffering from Comparing-her-to-other-kids-itis. Which we need to knock off. Em is Em and not anyone else.

Maybe we need a puppy into whom to channel energy.

I love the idea of a wedding in a library.

I'm just picturing the world's *quietest* reception, because everyone has wandered off to read.

I have a EIGHTEEN day supply of antibiotics (Levaquin or however it's spelled).

askye, be very VERY careful with that antibiotic -- it has a fairly common side effect of fucking up tendons BADLY. Like, to the point of causing tendons to rupture. And even if they don't rupture, you could have serious tendon pain for months or longer.

I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom, because it's excellent that you have a diagnosis and treatment plan. But I had the tendon problem happen, Nicole did, and my stepdad is currently dealing with tendon problems so bad that he can barely walk, after only 6 days of Levaquin.

So, just keep an eye on how you feel, and if you have any tendon pain, STOP the antibiotic immediately and call your doctor. Seriously.

smonster, I get the idea that RDJ would be kinda interesting to hang around. He was sharply funny, even tensely so.

Yes, I agree. He definitely wasn't the most relaxed or natural celebrity I've seen on GN, but he was very gracious and witty.

Tom was the same way, and now we have 2 cats.

All right, enough of y'all have chimed in that I shall rekindle the wee flame I had burning. It's not so much a torch as a match, but it's still a lovely little glow.

I didn't hear from KBD at all yesterday, which was so lovely. I'm anticipating a call today pouting about how it was his first day at work and I didn't call him. I think I'll let it go to voicemail (I joke but I'm very aware that I am likely on the brink of cutting off communications for some time, and possibly forever).

Aimee, please please do not worry about Emeline's progress, and whatever you do, don't freak out. Not reading at 5 is considered normal progress. What you look for at 5 is reading readiness: recognizing letters and their names, interest in following a book read to her, etc. She's right where she needs to be.

There's a lot of focus in US kindergarten on reading, but in some educational programs reading isn't even taught until kids are 7. Learning to read is like learning to walk, a lot of conceptual and perceptual pieces need to fall into place in order for it to happen, and every kid does it at her own pace.

There's a lot of focus in US kindergarten on reading, but in some educational programs reading isn't even taught until kids are 7

In my kindergarten, there were one or two kids who knew how to read. I wasn't taught reading until first grade.

I mostly read science books - by second grade, I was reading books on astronomy and space exploration from the adult section of the library.

Aims, volunteering in Owen's kindergarden class has given me much perspective on typical reading development. Only two or three of Owen's classmates are reading. We work on letter recognition in their centers. Em's probably very much on track for her age.

Owen's reading level is freakish. I'm proud of it but it is also hard to keep him interested in what the rest of the class is doing. And his social development is way behind.