Joey and I recently enjoyed a few weeks of reading This Book is Magic by Ashley Evanson. Much like the books Push Here by Herve Tullet, This Book is Magic encourages the reader to fully interact with the book – tapping the page, waving or twirling fingers in the air, and saying magic words in order to make magic be revealed when you turn the page.
“Wiggle your fingers and say bravo!”
“Wave your magic finger and say Bippity Boppity Big”
Throughout the book the reader is able to turn a frog into a prince, make books large, cause a boat to disappear, and interact with a lion.
After spending four months with my own rising first grader I feel even more acutely aware of what rising first graders are into – and need to remember to bring age appropriate materials to Joey. My daughter loves the Princess in Black and the Mercy Watson books – both are series of simple chapter books with bright pictures on each page. They are the perfect bridge to reading chapter books – supporting the young listener (or reader) with entertaining and action-filled pages along with the illustrations.
Before I was back in person with Joey his Occupational Therapist and I touched base. Although each person on a child’s team has a speciality, nothing in development happens in isolation – a child cannot learn to communicate without also developing their motor skills – and vice versa. Typical development occurs with systems relying on one another, and when development is disrupted each system must continue to be addressed. In truth, I think Joey’s OT and I wish we were able to collaborate more frequently. I can always tell when he has made sudden gains in OT because the gains coincide with progress in his communication and academics.
On July 6th, after last seeing Joey in the beginning of March, I was finally able to meet with Joey in person. As I walked up his driveway I found myself apprehensive about what I was going to find when we got to work. We had been working so hard during the winter months – tackling those early kindergarten skills of learning high frequency words, counting, phonemic awareness activities, and using his AAC eye gaze device to share his jokes, thoughts, and ideas. 
In my virtual Friday read aloud group that Joey participates in I read the book “The Day You Begin” by Jacqueline Woodson. It’s a beautiful book – in both the poetry of the words as well as the pictures. As an adult, I’d read it to myself when it arrived from Amazon and thought “This is perfect.” Of course, reading it silently to your adult self in your head is very different than reading it aloud to a group of energetic kindergarten and first graders on a hot June afternoon. Sometimes beauty gets lost in those moments. 
