Declan has never been a lover of school; Logan has.  As much as Logan can find excitement in spending time with his friends and learning new things and being a part of the various activities they do, Declan finds dread in having to go five days a week and having to sit still and do what he's told and the unsatisfactory ratio of classroom time to recess time.  However, this year he's been doing so much better dealing with it all and while he's never happy to go to school, he's been doing so much better with just sucking it up and doing the work.  In fact, he's becoming quite the reliable student who seems to find value in getting his work done so it's done rather than putting it off to the last minute (*ahem, Logan*) or just plain forgetting about it and not getting assignments finished (*also ahem, Logan*).

Each month their school gives awards to one outstanding student in each grade based on his/her performance in a specific area.  December is the "Joy of Reading" month and last year Logan won it for second grade.  Logan has always been a reader - so much so that we frequently get complaints from his teachers that he would rather spend his time reading than following the assignments with the class.  His teachers have to take away his books at school because he gets so enthralled in them that he doesn't hear when it's time to put them down and move on.  Declan likes reading okay, but he doesn't love it like Logan does.  I've stopped trying to encourage it so much because he doesn't love it even though he is well above grade level for it.  Some people just don't enjoy reading, I guess.  Weird.

Anyway, as this school year has developed it's become clear that Declan's unlove of reading may be because we've been giving him the wrong things to read.  As it turns out, he is probably taking more after his daddy than I realized when it comes to books, in that he can totally get into non-fiction and doesn't seem to give much of a rip about fiction.  He'll listen excitedly as Logan tells him about whatever fiction books he's been reading, but when given the opportunity to read them himself, Declan always says no thank you and says he doesn't like reading.  But he brings home books from the library that are focused on boring subjects like World War II and how electricity works and he's freaking excited to tell us what he's learned.

As this non-fiction lightbulb was slowly dimming on in my head, we got a letter in the mail.  Declan also won the December "Joy of Reading" award from school for the 2nd grade!  I guess I should have been paying more attention to his context clues in regards to reading, but now that I know what he likes I can help encourage that a bit more and see if he can foster an enjoyment that he's not aware he has.  Our whole family went to see him receive his award in his classroom and learned that whenever he has free time in class, he goes to the books at the back of the room and I guess is stuffing himself full of knowledge about science and technology and history and whatnot.  Totally weird.