Camden Reading in Spanish

I am amazed at how Camden’s reading has improved the last few months.  At his parent teacher conference at the beginning of the school year the teacher said he needed help with his reading to get up to grade level (I think she said he was at level A, and needed to be at level 3 by the end of the year [I think it goes A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 . . .]).  She told me what she would be working on with him, and said that we’d probably need to have another conference about his progress later in the year.  I wasn’t too concerned, since not only is Camden learning a new language, but I know from experience with my older kids that not all kids even start reading well in kindergarten, and then they get it later on and do just fine.  Anyway, I’ve noticed his reading has improved lately, and I made this video of him reading one of his Spanish books that he brings home from school for homework.  I think he is doing so well!  (And this video was almost a month ago, he’s reading even more fluidly now).  I’d say he’s doing just as well with his reading as many other kindergarteners, except he’s doing it in a foreign language so that’s really great.  Anyway, I got an e-mail from his teacher the other day saying that she didn’t feel another conference was needed because he has improved so much on his reading.  She said they like the kids to be reading at a level 3 in kindergarten, and Camden’s at a level 4 now.  And Camden came home from school the other day and told me that his teacher said he’s just about to a level 5 now.  So he has improved a lot.  (And I just love to listen to him roll his “R”s.  I think it’s so cute!)  The comprehension’s not all there yet, but he’s doing well and that will come.  He reads a bit better in Spanish than he does in English right now, but that’s improving too (he just gets more practice with the Spanish than the English right now while he’s learning so much).  I just think this whole dual language program is really cool!  And I can’t wait until Isaac gets in next year, and I’m sure we’ll see the younger boys start to use Spanish more and more as they are able to use it with their brothers.