Zahra can read

About a week ago, Zahra started interrupting me during story time to sound out random words. Below is a video of one of those first times.

I took the video and put it on YouTube but didn't put it here. I didn't think it significant enough for the blog at the time.

Today, on the drive home from school, Zahra was playing our daily letter finding game and said "E!". Great, I told her, what word was it in? I asked almost by mistake but she answered "East!" And she was right. She followed up with "East like Easter. Almost like Eid." And then she seemed three again. Adorable and a little mixed up.

Tonight, Zahra read many words during story time. She read almost every word she attempted: fin, an, not, big, dad. Then we got to the end of the Cheetah book where they advertise for their other eight books in the big cat series. She knew Tiger, Lion, Jaguar, Leopard from the pictures, I presume. Then I quizzed her and she deftly sounded "B-ah-b-cat", because apparently she knows cat by sight. After running the sounds together three times she proudly exclaimed "bobcat!" And with that, she convinced me that she can read.

When I asked her what her favorite thing about today was, she said when I was trying to sew and Zayd was climbing all over my machine asking, "What's this button do? What's this button do? What's this thing for?" She mimicked his fervent questioning. When I asked her why that was her favorite moment of the whole day (including the sweet lovely conversations and reading we has just finished up), she said, "I just like it when people talk a lot." And she beamed with those big joyous eyes.

She and I are going to have the best conversations together for decades to come. I can't wait to learn more about my dynamic amazing little lady.