This morning was met with much excitement in our home. Today my daughter and her peers read their published books in front of the class and parents. The children were free to write about whatever, many wrote about their dreams, some read poems they had written, others spoke about trips they had taken to Africa and one read about Passover.

It was nice meeting parents that I have not met before and great seeing the parents I already knew. One parent commented on how well my daughter reads and boy, does that make me feel good! Although when it was her time to read, she didn’t read loud enough and I’m standing in the back wanting to give hand signals to direct her. Sit up. Enunciate your words. Speak louder. Hold your book up when you read. Maintain audience contact. Of course, I didn’t gesture my thoughts to her, that was just my 20 plus years of public speaking experience thinking out loud. I thought she, as well as the other children, did great reading in front of an audience. That’s not such an easy thing to do, I still get nervous.

After they were done reading their books, we had a light breakfast and chatted with the other parents and kids. At least once a month, I take some time off from work to doing something in her class, whether it be for show-and-tell or reading with the other kids, I think it’s important to be there. Nothing compares to the return I get on my investment, the joy on her face: Priceless.