Sister.

Sister.

Feb 08

You might remember Henry from a previous post.  Well, as luck would have it, I found out that Henry’s older sister, Amy is in the second grade class of one of my new favorite teachers, Mrs. P.  At lunch one day, when we discovered the siblings we shared, we started brainstorming some ways to help them connect at school.

With so much going on at home, we wanted to provide some positive literacy and emotional experiences at school.  After some schedule discussion, we decided that Amy would come down twice a week to read with Henry for twenty minutes.

I told Henry about it last week and he’s been asking when his sister would come everyday since… often numerous times a day.

Well today, Henry had a rough day.  I never know what may have set him off before he arrived at school, but I could tell he was not himself.  As luck would have it, Amy came down after lunch for the first time to read with Henry.  The look on his face when she walked in was priceless.  I sat them down in the library and she began reading one of the three books she brought to read him.  They snuggled close and he looked like he was in heaven.

I had to run over to my computer and shoot a quick email to Mrs. P. to tell her how wonderful they were together… I never email during the day, but it was one of those moments.

Henry was in bliss.  His sister, a big important second grader was coming down to read with him.  He clearly loves his sister and she really is amazing with him.  For the twenty minutes she was there, his troubles seemed to fade away and nothing else mattered.

I’ve already decided, as a gift to Amy for reading to Henry, I’m going to meet with her teacher and pick out a few good books for her to take home.  I’m not sure there will be any reading at home, but I’m hopeful.  If nothing else, they are building some reading and snuggling memories together at school.