Tonight we were driving through the parking lot of Wal-Mart. I drove in on the grocery store side but we were going in to buy High School Musical 3 so I wanted to park on the other side. I, of course, was rationalizing all of this out loud to the girls. As I turned down the front of the lane Emma says, “No, I want to park at the Market.” I was a little shocked to see the word “Market” above the doorway to the grocery store entrance and asked Emma how she knew that and she said, “I read it.” She asks me what does m.a.r.k.e.t spell and I tell her Market of course and she says, “Yeah, I read it.” I think we both might have been a little shocked and I of course made a big deal about how great it was. I don’t imagine that word has come up in any readings she’s done so far so that tells me she’s really, really getting it.
I still remember a moment almost exactly like that when I was 6 or 7. We lived near the local community college around here at the time and we drove past the school and it has (and still has) TECH written diagonally on the side of the building. I remember saying “Tech” out loud and I still remember the surprise (and pride if I remember correctly) in my mom’s voice when she said, “Yes, that’s right!”
Funny how things go full circle. I just hope my love of reading is next.
