M. reads on his own.

 It has been a while since I updated this but I wanted to provide an update on M's reading. He just finished a tough but ultimately very good second grade year. Despite his intense interest in being read to since age three, only by the end of this academic year has he mastered reading on his own. (And we still have a way to go, but we are now reading at grade level.) As far as we know, M. doesn't have dyslexia, but he did receive an ADHD diagnosis this year. We are also very lucky that our school district uses a phonics-based curriculum (Fundations), as this was key in M. learning to decode.

All this said, having begun the year reading Llama Llama Red Pajama, M. finished out the year with the Dragon Masters series and has nearly finished book five. Some of the books we read on the way:

1. The Jack Book Series by Mac Barnett and Greg Pizzoli (this was actually at the end of first grade)

2. Grizzwold by Syd Hoff

3. Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff (we also read the spinoffs like Danny and the Dinosaur Ride a Bike, but it is not nearly as good as the original)

4. Sammy the Seal by Syd Hoff

5. Greg's Microscope by Millicent Selsam

If you've read my other entries, you know I have a low tolerance for a lot of I Can Read-type literature, but these are all solid (alongside the Fox series, George and Martha, and Little Bear, but these being the three I knew and liked before M.'s own reading journey began, they weren't novel enough for this stage of being to read independently).