A Success Story for Sarah & Me

It's funny how when life gets tough it is the simple things that mean the most.

Before Sarah lost her vision she loved to read. Her favorite books were horse stories especially the Breyer Horse series. One of the hardest things for her about losing her vision was that she could no longer read books on her own.

I have always loved reading to my kids and so when Sarah could no longer read for herself I doubled up my efforts to make sure that I was reading to her as much as possible. In the last couple of years we have read 150 - 200 books easily. The entire Junie B Jones collection, Stella Batts, the first 38 Baby-Sitter Club books,  and now the Classics - which we have read maybe 15-20 of are just a sampling of the books we have read. We are constantly reading together. It is the least I can do for her.

As we began to learn braille we knew that it would be a long road. Braille is both simple and complex at the same time. There is a lot of memorization and a specific way in which you have to hold your hands so that the most sensitive parts - your finger tips - can "read" the braille cell in order to determine what letter is being presented. We had to learn our letters and numbers and then our punctuation marks as well. (We are still working on those.) After learning letters it was time to put those together to create words. It has taken Sarah a while to get decent in reading her words. It is difficult for her to sometimes tell where one letter ends and the next begins which frustrates her. We practice just about every day and I have seen some progress.

It has been about two years since Sarah has been able to read on her own. For two years the words that she wanted so badly to be able to see have evaded her. And then it happened. All of the work she and I have been putting in together learning braille clicked. She read her first sentence yesterday while doing some braille homework. It was simple and it was beautiful:

"She lives a full life with five kids."

We celebrated those 8 words like we had just won the lottery. I whooped and hollered and did a happy dance. Sarah smiled from ear to ear. For the first time in a really, really long time she no longer needed my help in reading. She could do it herself.


I know that this was just one sentence and she is in no way ready to read a chapter book yet, but here is proof that it will happen someday. Of this I am certain. I am so proud of her for getting this far. I am proud of her for day after day learning a new language, a new way to read, and a new way to write. She has put in the work and she is reaping her rewards.

And you know what? I am super proud of me too. I did this. It was my day in and day out of teaching her. It was me putting in the man hours of learning how to teach her. Sarah learned (and is still learning) how to read because of me. Here is one visible success story that I will take some credit for. I am her teacher. Do you have any idea how good that feels? For all of the days that I feel like I may be failing my children in some way here is evidence that I am successful too. For all of the times that I feel that their future rests solely on my shoulders because I choose to homeschool them - here is proof that I am one hell of a good teacher - and that my kids will be just fine.

Here is the proof that how we spend our moments is how we spend our lives. All of those moments day in and day out teaching Sarah and having us both learn something completely new and out of our comfort zone, but so utterly important to her future success added up to create one of the best success stories she has had in these couple of really hard years.

And this celebration was all because of 8 little words. The best things in life are the most simple as the kids and I were reminded of yet again yesterday.

Photo courtesy of:mhpbooks.com