Big Breaths, Small Steps

Jake read today.

Jake. read. today. 5 words.

He doesn't know his vowels yet, so I told him their sounds as we came to them. And then he read them.

I cried. He sat there wondering why I'd lost my mind. And then we prayed and thanked his Creator for a smart brain. And asked for grace for the days to come, times when we have to start on those pesky sight words (I know, I'm planning too far ahead).

But for today, we read. And I breathed a huge sigh of relief because I've had absolutely no idea whether or not this special guy was going to learn here at home. I've been fearful that we were going to have to send him to someone better at this than me. Which would've been okay, except that we homeschool because I love having my kiddos near. And I would've cried a lot.

Wow. Today is a good day.

Jake will probably find the cure for cancer, and I will laugh as I think back over these days!

(As I typed those last words, Jake just said, "That's a blessing that God made me know how to read!!" Today is officially a really good day!)

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Postscript: God has continuously pressed me with this thought: "The heart of man plans his ways, but the LORD establishes his steps." Here's another incredible angle on this event: I wasn't teaching Jake to read today. Because it wasn't in my plans for today. In fact, we weren't even having our "language" time. We were smack-dab in the middle of handwriting.

I was just doing my usual. As we talked about the letters that required copying, I asked him what sounds they made. The copywork was "dog."

"So, 'd' says?"

"Duh."

"Right. And you haven't learned 'o,' but it says "ah," and "g" says..."

"Dog."

I went blank. Then I went to unbelief. He'd probably learned this word, one of our first we all learn, by watching Wordgirl or Martha Speaks or something. So I wrote "dot," and held my breath.

"Okay, 'd' says 'duh,' and that 'o' says 'ah.' What does the 't' say?"

"Ttt."

"Right. Do you know what this word is?" And then I held my breath again.
(It's amazing I don't pass out with all the breath-holding I do.)

"Dot."

ohmyword.

So then we worked through "go" and "cat" and "gun." And he read. And I cried. And you know the rest.

But as I've turned these minutes over and over in my mind, God has been showing me: I had NO plans to start teaching "reading" today because we weren't ready!! Jake knew no vowel sounds. He still struggled to remember all of the consonants. As always, I knew what the game plan was.

Ha.

GOD knew that Jake was ready, because God is in charge, as always. He was the one Who prepared him for today, for the moment, and Jake read when his Maker was ready.

It never has anything to do with me! I can relax! Our good and gracious & ever-wise Father remains perfectly in control and continues to work in Jake! His plans for Jacob will never be thwarted!

Isn't that funny? It had nothing to do with me at all! I was just in my own little oblivious homeschooling world...