A Tooth & a Testimony

Almost 6 years to the day, Jordan (at about 6 years, 8 months, 9 days & 11 hours old) FINALLY lost his first tooth. It's been a long time coming. Those two bottom front teeth have been wiggly for what feels like forever, if you ask Jo. For the last month, every day before going to school he would say "Mom, I really hope my tooth falls out at school today". All that was needed was for track break to get here & viola! Naturally. ;)

Here's some pics of him looking pretty pleased with himself.

Unfortunately he forgot to take the tooth with him to bed last night, so the Tooth Fairy had to leave him a note. Sometime in the middle of the night I awake to Jo whispering "Dad"..."Dad"..."Dad"..."Dad"....

Grrrr.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who was awakened by our nighttime visitor.

He wanted to say he'd forgotten to put his tooth under his pillow. Okay, I sort of already knew that. But then he wanted to have a conversation/argument about whether or not the Tooth Fairy might have already come or not.

Grrrr.

He went back to bed eventually, after life & death threats from me, & woke up to find the note.

Today, he made a little pouch out of paper & staples (I can't every seem to keep the kid away from my stapler) & wrote a note on it, so there would be no confusion. It says " Tooth Fairy, my tooth is in here. Love, Jordan".

On to the testimony part....

We have family scripture study & prayer each night with the kids. Each night Dave, Ty & I trade off on whose turn it is. A few weeks ago I got the bright idea to ask Jo to "help" me read, since it was my turn that night. He's a helper....he LOVES to help. Reading is the bain of his existence. Coming from an avid reader, this is practically blasphemy & is something I'm really working hard to change.

Thankfully, Jo's a typical male & you can trick him in to doing just about anything if you phrase it just right. :) It's all about how you say it....

So, he's excited to help me & he gets to read the words he knows & I read the ones he doesn't. He repeated the words he didn't know after I said them & by the end of our reading that night he had at least 3 new words he could recognize right away.

We gave him a new Book of Mormon in his Easter basket along with some marking pencils (because who doesn't love to mark ever letter 'F' in the whole book??). Since then he has, almost every day, sat down with his scriptures. He goes through & tries to sound out the words he doesn't know, which was like pulling teeth to try to get him to do before, & highlights the words he does know.

It's not pretty, but I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am with how far his reading has come in just this past few weeks! His sight word knowledge has grown by leaps & bounds, as well as his vocabulary!!

So, not only is it my testimony that the Book is true, but that it has great potential to help any struggling child with their reading skills. :)

I couldn't be more pleased! :D