Mater's Corner: To read or not to read

My third child has one of those birthdays that falls between the timeline that determines when to begin school. When he was right about 5 he started kindergarten. It did not go well. Within the first week I had brought him back home and resigned myself to another year of his rapscallion behaviors. Believe me, he sure dished them out. I remember after he watched Home Alone. His favorite part was to lift his eyebrows and gleefully say "I made my family disappear". A few days later he pulled a prank on me. I couldn't find him and was calling his name. He was dead silent while I searched the house for him. He had a habit of running off. I searched and searched and then in a panic grabbed the other kids and hopped in the car to go look for him. I wasn't gone more than a few minutes before heading home and there he was in the courtyard. Laughing! I wasn't. We finished out that year and the next year right after he turned 6 he started first grade. At first I thought for sure he'd end up back home again. He didn't. However, after a couple months I started getting feedback from the teacher that he was really struggling with reading and would need a tutor. My kids were going to a classical school that prided itself on it's multisensory reading program. They broke up the first grade day to somehow fit in three hours of reading practice. In my mind that was more than enough. If my son was not learning to read with that amount of practice I didn't think more was going to help. So, I did nothing. He went to school. When he came home he played and I didn't ask him to do more. Last year he went to second grade. He still struggled with reading but I did not make it a thing. This year we're homeschooling. He told me that last year when all the kids were reading chapter books in class he would just pretend to keep up. I discovered quickly that he really was probably about half a year behind grade wise. I feel bad that I put him into first grade so young. At home I picked out the second grade reader from the bookshelf. A dear friend of mine had passed it on years before. A couple times a week he would read to me from the reader. He'd speak in a really quiet voice. If there were any distractions he'd throw the book and run away. I'd try again with him later. We have been slowly but surely picking it up and he's been reading it since August. The other day he finished it. With great joy and jubilation he ran screaming in delight around the house. He was pleased to bits with himself and so was I. I asked my dad to get him a book that I remember from our family library for Christmas. It's a silly book and I hoped that my son wouldn't be intimidated by it. When it came on Christmas my son wasn't put off and didn't cry that all he got was a book. Instead he enjoyed it when I read to him from it. This morning he sat on the couch and loudly and with great animation and expression read aloud the entire book to anyone within ear shot. I can't describe my joy. Society can often make us feel like we have to push our children and ourselves harder and harder. Do. Do. Do. But I have found that being gentle is usually what is best. Slow down. I have to remind myself of this too. Slow down. Some day he will read. Next up, writing. It will come. Thank God for the grace He's given me to help my son like this. I am so grateful and teary- eyed. I genuinely like having him home now, even if he is still a little rascal.