Stepping Aside

For tonight’s reading, Đán picked out Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss. He thought he could plow through it. Unfortunately, he struggled with almost every word including “all” and “we,” which repeated a few times within several pages.

At first, I patiently helped him, but he completely went off track. He just threw out words that are not even close to the actual word. I became incredibly frustrated so I just told him to stop and go to bed.

Just when I thought we had made some small progress, he regressed to not be able to read simple two-, three-letter words. I need to let him go. I just have to accept the fact that I can’t help him. I am going to back off and let him figure it out for himself.

I see his stubbornness in me. I did not like to read until I discovered it myself. As much as I would like to get him to read, I don’t want my attempt to backfire. If reading is not his thing, my help only makes the matter worse. I want to encourage him to read. I don’t want to make him hate reading. It’s time for someone else to step in and take an active role.