SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
We have always felt that it was most important for us to teach our girls to read. After all, if you can’t read, you can’t do math problems. It has been such an important part of our lives and training that both our girls were able to read while still in pre-kindergarten.
Back in the 1970’s, the big method for teaching children to read was phonetically – sound out the letters of the word and you will be able to make the word your own. That may still be a method of teaching children to read – I don’t know.
Because Fred and I both wear glasses/contact lenses, we were concerned that our girls might need eye correction fairly early in their lives. So we had them tested by the AF Base’s optometrist upon several occasions.
Our youngest daughter, Janet, was in second grade, when we had her tested at one point in time. The technician started with the smallest “line” to read. No response from Janet. He moved it up to the next line – no response. Wringing of hands by Janet at this point. He moved it up another line – no response. Severe wringing of hands by Janet. But no response.
Finally, Fred leaned toward her and said – “it doesn’t make a word.” She had been trying to phonetically make those letters into a word – and she couldn’t do it! Well – I doubt if WE could have made it into a word, either!
The technician had told her to “read” the line, and that was exactly what she was trying to do – read that line of letters!
She did learn to read – and she didn’t need too much eye correction. Thank goodness!
Old Things R New 
How sweet! Thanks for the smile. Kids are so literal and in the moment. We older folks need some of that:)
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I loved that story!
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What a wise father to figure out the problem.
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Cute story! Sometimes we forget that kids take things much more literally than we do:)
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Ah, another lesson in commucation skills!
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