Break

It's been a while. Things have going from high to higher gear in anticipation of our soon to be born baby and we really haven't had much time to do any lessons. It is unfortunate, but my daughter is still able to play Starfall.com and even brought some words and letters to my mom's house (she babysits for us) yesterday. I feel bad about not making the time to teach my daughter but I'm pretty worn out these days. Hopefully we'll get a good lesson in soon.

Crisis Diverted

I asked my daughter today if she wanted to play school tonight and she enthusiastically said yes! We had a very good session and her confidence seems to be at an all time high. She remembered the 'R' that was introduced last night and learned tonight's new sound symbol with ease. The next one is 'S' and she already knows it so that one should be easy too.

She's getting much better at sounding out the short words. Tonight she looked at each letter the first time and then started saying the sounds faster and faster without looking back at the words. This was done on her own. She even said once that she would try to say it faster. I think she's starting to figure out how the sounds blend together. Very good day!

Uh oh!

Last night my daughter was only half-heartedly interested in playing school. We played and introduced the 'R'. She already knew the sound so it was easy. She wasn't crazy about reading last night either. I thought it might be because she was tired.

This morning I asked her if her stuffed animals were ready to play school tonight and she said she didn't want to play. I sure hope I can turn things around with some new games. Sigh!

Moving on

Well the 'I' troubles continue. My daughter can not remember the sound for anything. I've decided to move on to the next letter/sound symbol and continue to work with her on 'I'. I don't want her to get frustrated and discouraged.

Games for Reading

I decided that it would be cool to add a little variety in our school game so I set out to see what ideas might be out there. I stumbled across Games for Reading: Playful Ways to Help Your Child Read by Peggy Kaye. The book offers over seventy different games using things that are readily available in most households. I placed my order and plan to give it a full review once I receive it.

Tiring weekend

Not sure if I mentioned this but my wife is due to give birth to our second child on August 7th. We've been working on getting things in order so the weekends have been packed with last minute preparations. As such, we have been slacking on the school game.

We did do a little review. My daughter is having trouble remembering the sound of 'I'. It seems there's not a whole lot of words that begin with 'I' so for some reason she's just not associating that letter with the sound. She's also starting to guess. I told her that she should just tell me that she doesn't remember and I'll help her. I'm sure she'll come around. Usually she picks up on the letter sound within two days but I guess this one is a bit different. She's wanting to learn another letter but I want to make sure she knows this one before continuing. I may just have to move on and keep reviewing this one to keep her from getting bored.

Nice dinner

As expected, we did not have our regular session today. We enjoyed a nice dinner with my sister and my brother-in-law. We did, however, read a few words before bedtime. I asked her if she wanted to read one more and she said "No thank you. I'm too sleepy". Funny.

I'm planning on working half a day tomorrow so hopefully we'll have time to get a good session in. Up next is a new sight word along with another letter (or sound symbol as we call them).