Reading to Mommy...

There's not much to report. He has resumed his (nearly) daily lessons. He reads a page (or for 5 minutes, whichever is shorter) out of his Phonics Pathways each evening. I'm glad that we've taken the extra time with short vowels (I made him repeat all of the eye-robics section in Phonics Pathways even though he wasn't having problems). He is so at ease reading from his lessons now.

He's picked up the patterns in word families without ever spending time working on them specifically. He is also picking up basic "sight words" through his reading. So far, the ones he's encountered simply have more advanced phonics rules, so I simply tell him the rule, he then sounds it out and he seems to remember the rule. He even applies it to other words (he knew the word "meet" because he applied the double e rule he learned with the word "see"). I'm so glad that I chose not to drill sight words. I fear that may have killed his interest. He wants to read so badly.

He's still reading through the "I See Sam" books. He likes these better than the "Bob Books". I'm sure he'll finish the "Bob Books" that we have sometime, but he has no interest in them right now.

I don't really have much else to say... he's just moving right along.

I'd love to hear what you're doing to teach your child to read. I know that we all use slightly different methods, but no two children learn anything the exact same way. We can all learn from each other.


  1. I'm very interested in learning about teaching reading. My son is almost 4 and he knows and has known all his letters, upper and lower, and can tell you all the sounds that they make. He really wants to be able to read on his own. I'm trying to teach him some basic phonics, but I don't feel like I'm doing a good job. I'd love to find a program to use with him (that doesn't focus on writing).

  2. I have been going to the library and getting whatever easy readers I feel Bear could read alone or with some help. I also dislike drill. Occasionally I have her play memory with the sight words (printed out twice). If she doesn't know the word I just read it to her. Eventually she'll pick them up. She needs very few repetitions. She still doesn't like to read from books- I feel like she may be intimidated by them, but I think there may be a turning point soon as tonight she read me two books of her own volition.


