Study Buddy

I'm always looking for ideas to boost my daughter's motivation to read.  Since we all know,  one needs to actually read to improve one's reading skills.  But with my dyslexic daughter, there are times she does all she can to avoid it.  I avoid things I don't like, too, and need extra motivation to complete the tasks.  I get it.

One idea I have read over and over is to provide your child with a 'study buddy'.  A study buddy can be real or stuffed, it just needs to be something your child can read to and interact with as an extra motivation to complete assignments.

We have a chocolate labrador and my daughter would try to read to her, but we are a busy family and our lab likes to be in the middle of the action.  She did not make a good study buddy since she bounces from one person to the next and back again.

Now my daughter has a leopard gecko.  A reptile.  I'm not a fan of reptiles, but my son has one and my daughter loved it, so her dad bought one for her.  The gecko's name is Rosa.

Rosa has done a wonderful job in her role as an unconditional listener.  She sits and 'listens' to my daughter as she struggles through each word, completes a sentences slowly, and drudges on through paragraphs.  In fact, Rosa does a better job than I do.  I am often fighting the urge to feed my daughter words and rush her through phrases when I listen to her read.

My daughter loves having Rosa.  Rosa is a big cheerleader for my daughter as she does dreaded homework assignments.   She is motivated to do those assignments knowing she gets time with her gecko.  Either way, she's actually reading and using her brain to process language.

And I'm starting to appreciate reptiles.  Well, maybe just one of them. Thanks, Rosa!