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When I was a little girl, I could not wait to learn how to read.
I would always have my parents read me a story when I went to bed or even just when I was bored.
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I had a pretty wild imagination, too.
When nobody was around to read me stories, I would look at the pictures on the pages and make up my own stories.
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On my first day of kindergarten, the teacher asked us what we were looking forward to the most.
Most kids said stuff like recess, lunch, and making new friends, but I said that I was looking forward to learning how to read.
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Each week of kindergarten, we would learn all about a different letter of the alphabet.
For what ever letter we were on that week, we would learn how to write that letter, and we would each have to come up with a word that began with that letter.
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Every afternoon, our teacher would read us a story.
She would ask us to tell her what was happening in each picture to see if we were paying attention, and she would quiz us after she was finished reading us the book.
When we got a 100 on the quiz, we would all get a prize.
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One day after story time, I decided to try reading by myself.
I picked up a book and tried to will myself to understand the words.
At first, none of it made sense at all: all the words just looked like meaningless jumbles of letters to me!
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Then I tried reading the words by separating the words into syllables that I could understand, and it worked a little easier.
It took me a while to read a sentence, but I was on the right track to learning to read.
I kept practicing and practicing, and soon I could read most of the book by myself!
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When I got home from school that day, I ran into the house and yelled "Mommy! Daddy! I learned how to read!"
My parents were really happy for me, and had me read them the book I learned to read.
I was a little nervous to read out loud for someone so I messed up some of the words, but they were still really proud of me.
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I read lots and lots of books throughout kindergarten, and became a better and better reader.
By the end of the school year, I had a shelf at home that was filled with all my favorite picture books.
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I was really proud of myself. I had learned how to read like I had wanted to.
I could not wait until next school year, so I could get even better at reading!
The End
