Learning how to read. . . .Again

This past week I have been learning how to read, again. It is one thing for me to be able to pick up a book and be able to read it, and a completely different thing to be able to teach someone to do the same thing. To be able to explain all the phonetic rules that one must learn when learning how to read is a whole new level of knowledge for me. I'm not sure if this makes sense to anyone else, but for me it is one thing to be able to do something, and another thing completely to be able to show another person how to do it. I have had the privilege of working with a kindergarten student who is on the cusp of learning how to read.
It is exciting to see the joy she got when she was able to show us that she can write her name, and was able to figure out the first letters of most of the words she was writing. The highlight of the time spent with this student was when she told me what her favorite book was, and it just happened to be the book I had brought to read to her. It was great to see her so excited, she wanted to instantly stop what we were working on and read the book. I love it when kids get that excited about reading. I would put this student at the stage of partial alphabetic/ prealphabetic learner because of her ability to give names and sounds of most letters, and her ability to use pictures as cues in her reading.
This kindergarten student has inspired me to pass on the joy she has and that I have of reading to as many people as possible. I was able to do this at the joint birthday party of my niece and nephew over the weekend. For part of their presents from me they received a book. They are 4 and 5 years old, and loved the books. I'm sure part of their joy stemmed from their parents having already started to share the joy that comes from reading a good book.