Community Impact Story - Dylan

When asked what ingredient he recognizes on the sheet of paper before him, Dylan says, “Chocolate Chips!”  But when he creates his imaginary cake, he decides honey and flour should be the main ingredients instead.  In fact, he wants to use 100 cups of honey.  Can Dylan count to 100 as he puts in the imaginary honey into his imaginary bowl?  Yes, he can!!

Dylan is four years old.  He and his mom, Joanne, participate in the SPARK kindergarten readiness program.  Joanne mostly speaks Spanish with Dylan, and he speaks English when he’s in preschool.  Joanne admits that he sometimes gets confused between the two languages, but she sees improvement since they started participating in SPARK 10 months ago.  

Dylan speaks quietly, but he’s a rambunctious little boy.  The lesson includes lots of gentle reminders to sit with his tummy pointing to the table.  Joanne has seen a great increase in the amount of time Dylan is willing to sit and learn during a lesson.

Although he can be wiggly, if you give Dylan a book, he will totally concentrate on the pages, reading the words he knows.

“Bunny Cakes!” He says the book’s title even before his SPARK Parent Partner can get the words out.  They read together, with Dylan chiming in on the words he knows:  “Eggs. Flour.”

The book is about a bunny who makes a cake for his grandma.  After reading the book, Dylan creates his “Heart Cake” recipe.  He quickly counts out each ingredient:  10 cups of flour, two tablespoons of sugar, 100 cups of honey, 14 eggs.

His mom laughs saying, “This is going to be a big cake!”

He decides the Heart Cake should bake for 1,000 minutes.  Joanne says he can count that high, but both Joanne and his Parent Partner decide it’s not necessary for him to demonstrate.

Dylan will start kindergarten in the fall, and he seems ready.  He can count, he’s beginning to read, and he was named student of the month at preschool for being respectful.  At the end of the SPARK lesson, Dylan is given a brand new book.  He promptly opens it and starts reading it to his little brother, quite respectfully indeed.