Ok---so, my Little Angel (in my estimation) is doing very well with her reading lessons--she needs extra attention and encouragement---but it seems once she learns, she remembers--even if we don't touch it for days! I will admit, that, even though I majored in English, teaching them to read is my biggest fear---I'm a firm believer in letting kids learn and progress at their rate--but I have read about some homeschooling kids who's parents are so relaxed about it that they don't "get it" til even the ages of 9 and above (and I've also heard that the "Late bloomers often turn out to be extremely strong and avid readers). Now, there is the part of me who has many tradtionally schooled friends whose children have been "reading" since the age of three. I'm also hearing that the average school age to learn to read is no longer first grade (like when I was there) but is now kindergarten--so I admit--the peer pressure is getting to me. I can be very relaxed about letting my children learn at their rate---but it's very important to me that they do learn to read earlier than later (they already enjoy it, I'm not worried about that; I'm also honestly not worried about reading comprehension, another factor of reading, that I remember struggling with --it wasn't so much comprehension, but concentration in the school setting, like with the Iowa tests)--in fact, I'm almost certain they'll do very well with that. Little Angel has been sitting in her room every night before bed " reading" her books. She will go through the entire books (that we've read to her a few times) and reword it, reciting the entire story line in very rich detail--I LOVE that--such creativity!
Ok, so I'm a babbling English-writing major here--there is a point. I think Little Angel's doing pretty well with her reading lessons--I'm sort of combining phonics with whole language learning (giving her a word or two a day on a card). Somedays she gets the phonics thing, other days, it's "choppy"--and still other days, she's outright not interested in reading lessons. I can respect that--but if she's not interested, it means there's something wrong with my presentation. Ironically I tried to make the lessons very simple, black and white for her---but they were a little too black and white. I'm working with a book, and letting her read out of the book with me (my thinking of course was that she'd get used to seeing what words look like in a regular book sans pictures). Well, guess what! That's boring! So I cranked up my creative juicer and came up with my new approach: color--lots and lots of color--heck, I love color--of course my girls do! I present the words and sentences on a pretty piece of construction paper--and everytime she successfully works a word or sentence out, she gets to apply a sticker. The ones without the stickers need more work. Then, at the end of the "school" day, Angel gets to keep this paper for her "homework," where she can study and and concentrate on it anytime she wishes.
Now comes the castle chart! Everyday that she does a reading lesson, she gets to apply another sticker on the steps leading up to the castle (see picture above---I found a castle greeting card to use for this:) Every few steps, you will see the letter "B"--which for us stands for "book." When she reaches the step to "B" she will get to unwrap one of the gifts, as shown above--which contains a new book! Little Fairy's also getting in on the act---it's funny, I think she's paying no attention, but she'll stop and look at a letter, and be able to give me the phonetic sound for some of them:)
Yesterday, after we completed our reading lesson, Angel said, "mama, let's do math now!!!"
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