Day One Hundred Seventy-Three

When the world is literally on fire, it's a pretty great time to focus on the resident 6-year old because she is the Queen of Distraction. Not only is she distracted by every last thing, she can distract anyone from anything.

I mean, almost. It's not like I've forgotten how very furious I am about the recording that leaked today.

ANYWAY.

The resident distraction is officially befuddling me. I cannot for the life of me figure out how it is that the kid who is several days ahead with her schoolwork cannot read a simple passage on demand. For real. Somehow Mila, a master of procrastination, has found her way to being several days ahead. She is flying through her math assignments, kicking butt at her writing work, and definitely reading at her grade level. I was in a meeting this morning and could hear her down the hall reading just as I would expect a 6-year old to read. A little choppy, but getting really close to having more words be automatic.

I HEARD HER.

And yet, just a few hours later, we went to do a story walk. A story walk, for the record, is a thing at some parks around town. The library partners with the park and puts up poster boards with book pages spread all around a walking path. Basically, you read a page, walk a few hundred feet, and read the next page. It's a pretty cool little thing and we've been enjoying it all summer.

This week's book is Chicka Chicka 1 2 3. It's an easy enough book, certainly on par with where I expect Mila's skills to be. AND YET. The kid could not focus for half a second and read a page. It was a battle from beginning to end. Half the time she wasn't even looking at the pages as she tried to sound out words, which is pretty fantastic when you have the patience of a gnat like I do.

It took over an hour to get through the book. AN HOUR.

And yet, just this morning, she read a book just fine when she didn't know I could hear her.

WHY DOES THE KID REFUSE TO READ WHEN I'M AROUND?

WHY?

Seriously, she's an expert at distracting me.