Rabid Readers

Isak was the "Thunder Reader" for his class in December. 1750 minutes of at-home reading. He is a good reader in English and reads well in Swedish too, just not as fast. When his teacher heard about my "college-fund" for the kids (teaching them to speak, read and write Swedish so they can - if they want to - attend University there at no cost) she allowed Isak's Swedish reading to count towards the mandatory minimum of 400 minutes of at-home reading.

I was reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Swedish to Isak and Elina in November and then came that weekend when I was with Elina in the hospital at the beginning of December. We were half-way through and Isak could not stand the suspense so he finished it on his own - was rewarded by getting to see the movie (dubbed in Swedish, ha!). He is now close to finishing The Chamber of Secrets. (Can I add that the translations of both these books leaves something to be desired? Shh, don't tell the kids!)

Elina reads in both English and Swedish, too. But recently she does something more. She'll read an English book to Anja doing simultaneous translation into Swedish - including translating names into Swedish counterparts on the fly. Very amusing and impressive at the same time.