Mom Remembers

So ... Soren can read. How in the world can this boy read? No one believes me but the truth is that he taught himself. Really. I've know that he could recognize an impressive number of worlds for a few months. I've begun to suspect that he knew how to sound out words for a few weeks. So I decided to try an experiment and see just how much he really can do. I asked him to read "Mercury", a book we had checked out from the library a few days previously. He read the whole thing; there were about 2 words he asked for help with. The next time we went to the library, I checked out a few Berenstain Bears books, which are the least crummy early readers I could find. And he could read them, as well. There were a lot more unfamiliar words in those books; it was interesting to see what he did with them. At first, he would make an educated guess as to pronunciation based on the consonant sounds only. After a while, though, he started to get the vowels right as well. We ...

I don't really like to rant on this blog but every once in a while, I just can't help myself. And what I want to rant about today is pediatricians. Don't get me wrong. Pediatricians are a great idea. Kids are different from adults and it is great to have a pediatrician if your child has serious health problems. But for regular check-ups, pediatricians are the pits. My main problem with seeing a pediatrician on a regular basis is that they think every minor deviation from average constitutes a serious health problem. Skinny kid = malnourished. Late walker = stupid. Late talker = autism. They freak parents out unnecessarily and, as a result, increase the amount of worry and disappointment directed at normal children. They heap up guilt on great (or at least perfectly adequate) parents about things they can't (and don't need to) change. The truth is that no child is average. They are above average in some areas and below average in others. Or, perh...