Ready. Set. Color!

I have a 5 year old reading buddy, and he is the absolute highlight of my week! Every Thursday, I go to Carlos' school and we spend about thirty minutes together reading and playing. 

We've had some pretty fun adventures during our sessions. Like that time Carlos decided it'd be a good idea to pick a book that was completely written in Spanish. Oy. My many years of Spanish helped me fake it through a good portion of the book, but I know I definitely butchered some of the words. 

Or that time when we read a book about a duck, a rabbit, and a squirrel. On every page we'd point out the animals and call them by name. "Squirrel" was a challenge. About three-quarters of the way through the book, C looked at me and timidly said, "Squirrel?" At which point, I think I squealed and threw my hands up in the air saying, "Yes! Yes! That's right!" A huge smile spread across his face and he said more confidently, "Squirrel." 

Or, the devil of all children's books, Dr. Seuss' "Fox in Socks." So. Hard. To. Read. Those darn tongue twisters! 

After my first couple of weeks, I realized that my little buddy might need some special attention with his counting. He always seemed to struggle once we got to 7. 

I walked into the classroom one Thursday and he came running towards me as he growled and said, "I'm a T-Rex!!"

Lightbulb. 

I made some dinosaur coloring pages for us to use after reading time. We'd count how many dinosaurs were on the page, how many he'd colored, and how many hadn't been colored yet.

Apparently it helps to hold your eyes a mere 2-inches from the page while you color...

Carlos was so excited to show his teachers and classmates his coloring page. Looks like I had succeeded as a reading buddy!

The next week, Carlos decided he wanted me to help him color the dinosaurs. After coloring one of the dinos, C yelled, "I won! I colored faster!"

Oh, so this is a competition now? Bring it!

Last week, I switched it up a bit and took a sheet of airplanes. As soon as Carlos saw me, with paper in hand, his eyes got huge. Once I showed him the page, he jumped up and down and called out, "Airplanes!"

Looks like I might have a future in coloring book development if this whole events & marketing career doesn't work out...

Kidding. But I'm a big hit in the pre-school scene!

I have to admit, I also look forward to our weekly coloring time. Who says coloring is just for kiddos?

xoxo, E