Together Or Apart

47. Co-Parenting

After London finishes with her sight words, her next task for homework is to do 10 minutes of reading. Rather than choosing a book from her bookshelf like we usually do, I had something in different in mind tonight. 

"Alright Londy, this is the recipe for our pasta sauce. Can you read it to me please?"

"But I need to read my book first. That's part two of my homework."

"Instead of reading a picture book, you can read from my recipe book. It's still reading, right?"

She nods her head and grabs the stool before standing up on it and looking at the recipe book. 

"It's a bit hard and the writing is small."

"Just take your time and remember to sound out the words. Take all of the time that you need. First look at the ingredients section. What do we need?"

London places her hands on either side of the recipe book and leans over it while squinting her eyes to examine the letters. "Four car-rots and one cap-" she pauses for a moment. "Cap-si-cum. Oh that's capsicum."

"Right, carrots and capsicum. Great job so far. What else do we need?"

"Three z-u-c-" she huffs to herself. "I don't know this one. It's too hard."

"Let's sound it out together." I point to each letter and we sound out the letters together. "Z-u-c-c-h-i-n-i."

London glances up at me with a confused expression on her face. "I still don't know what that word is." 

"Zucchini. This is what a zucchini is." I walk over to the fridge and pull out a zucchini. "How many did it say again?"

"Three zucchinis."

London continues reading out the ingredients to me and while this is taking a little longer to prepare the dish than it usually would, she is using her reading skills and relating them to a real-life situation, instead of reading from a children's picture book. It is important for London to understand the importance of being able to read. Words are everywhere around us. Almost everywhere we look, we see words or writing. From street signs, to posters, on technology, birthday cards - everywhere.

After preparing the pasta bake, I place the pan inside the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

"Well done with your homework tonight Londy. Your reading has improved so much baby girl. To top it all off, you got the chance to improve on your cooking skills too." I say while laughing and London smiles proudly to herself. It's so important to boost a child's confidence because it encourages them to continue promoting their skills and development. 

"Can I play in my room for a bit before dinner?"

"Yes you can. But can you please pop your homework book away first?"

She nods her head before picking up her homework book and placing it in the top drawer in the foyer. This is where we keep her homework book whenever it is not in use or being marked by her teacher over the weekend. 

Meanwhile, Harry enters the kitchen and has just come from upstairs where he was putting Sydney down for an early night. She had a temperature and was feeling poorly, so she had an early dinner so that she could go off to sleep. 

"How'd you go?" I ask him as he ruffles London's hair when they pass by each other. She playfully hits him with her homework book before putting it away and running up the stairs. 

"Is that an elephant going up those stairs?" Harry calls out to London who was indeed walking with heavy footsteps. 

The sound of her laughter can be heard, followed by an attempt at an elephant trumpet sound.