things that make me happy right now: teaching priya to read.

A week of my favorite things . . .

“Madam, I’m sorry but I don’t know how to read,”  Priya told me, one of her first days of work.  I had, unthinkingly, showed her a spice label when we were cooking.

And then, the first time she brought Roshen over to our house, she pulled me aside and said, “Madam, if you don’t mind, would you read a book to Roshen?  I have always wanted to, but I can’t.”

In that moment, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to teach Priya to read.

So I did a little research, and that next week: “Priya, would you like to learn how to read?”

“Oh yes, madam!  And write too!  I very much want to learn!”

“Do you want me to teach you?”

There was disbelief and joy all over her face and in the air around us.

Such a simple thing.

But I was nervous and Priya was nervous.  This is brand new ground for both of us.

So last week we carved out a time of day—in the afternoon while the kids are watching TV—to sit for thirty minutes and study.

I bought a white board and pens and pencils and lined paper, and opened the primer I’m using with Judah, and we began.

Priya doesn’t know how to read or write in her own language either, but she is sharp and catches on quickly.  She already had the English alphabet memorized and could recognize it by sight when we began.  So, the first week, we learned short-vowel sounds.  Now we’re working on consonants.

And on Monday, Priya read her first three words: cab, cat, and fat!

We sat there while she sounded out the letters, then I held my breath in that magical moment when it dawned on her: I know this word!  Wait: I can read this word!!!

The writing comes more easily for Priya.  She obviously has had a lot of pre-writing practice and can sign her name her first language, which helps with learning to form English letters.  She is already further ahead in writing than we’ve reached in reading, and I’m okay with that.

This is another area where I’m in over my head, and if you have any experience, I’d be glad to hear it.  I love that teaching Priya—fumbling, trying to keep one step ahead—is helping me learn how to become a teacher.  I love that she’s in a completely different level developmentally than Judah and asks questions about the “why’s” of reading, and makes me think and have to explain.

I love that I’m learning to read and write and speak another language while Judah and Priya are learning how to read English.  It makes me so much more patient and compassionate with them—because it’s hard work.  I love looking around each of them at our apartment full of books and imagining them choosing whichever one they want to read.

I love the chance to share something that makes me so happy.

Priya tells me bits and pieces of her story as we work side by side in the kitchen or clean out a bedroom closet.  She has never been to school.  Her husband knew how to read in English, and she begged him to teach her, but he refused, saying he didn’t want her to try to “rise above her place.”

Everybody—everybody—should have the opportunity to learn to read.  Especially women, here in this country.  If you are reading these words, you have been given a gift that millions of people long for.

I’m so proud of Priya for dreaming that she can learn to read and write, for believing it’s not too late, for her bravery in making her desire known to me.  I’m proud of her for humbling herself at the dining room table every day, saying, “I don’t know but I’m willing to learn,” working hard to learn to sign her name in cursive and to stumble through vowel sounds she’s never in her life said before, practicing writing her letters in the early mornings before her son wakes up.

If you’d pray for us in this endeavor, we’d be so grateful.