Another long session

We got a late start tonight but ended up playing for a while. My daughter had trouble with the 'T' again. It seems she forgets that one every now and then. Not sure why. We introduced another letter tonight which she locked on very well. She was able to read 'TUB' and 'BAT' without help. She told me she was too tired to continue so we called it quits. I'm pretty tired myself.

Tomorrow we're going to my sister's house for dinner so we probably won't get a session in.

So much for that good mood!

I went in my daughter's room this morning to find that she was wide awake and very happy. I told her that I was sorry that we hadn't played school the night before and that we would definitely play tonight. She said 'Can we play now?'. I was already late for work so I told her it would have to wait. She didn't like that at all. Smiles turned into tears and my wife was not too happy with what I had done. Oh well, lesson learned.

Computer problems

I got back home today to find that lighting had wrecked havoc on my two computers. My office computer was at the BIOS screen and I was able to resolve that quickly. My home theatre pc, however, was not in good shape. It would not boot, didn't beep, no video, bad news all-around. I spent about an hour and a half working on it before finally getting things working again. Long story short, not much time for school tonight.

I showed her the 'G' again and she was able to identify it. I'm thinking she's got a decent handle on it now.

I'm impressed

Tonight we had a very long session of school. My daughter sounded out and piece together about ten words. She stumbled on 'CUP' thinking it was 'CUT' but she understood once we sounded it out again. I think she was guessing but the ending sounds do sound pretty close.

I introduced the 'G' and she told me that it looked like the 'Cuh' sound symbol. Pretty perceptive. She had a bit of trouble with the new letter as she was getting it confused with the other letter's sounds. I asked her to grab the letters that sound like 'Huh Uh Guh' and put them in her Word Whammer game. I then asked her to sound it out and she did. She sounded it out again and said 'H-U-G. Hug. Hug?!' She was very excited and read the word without any help and without the word ever being practiced. She was proud of herself but probably not as proud as her dad was!

No school today

We had a lot going on today so no school. I feel somewhat guilty about it but hey, we can all take a break every now-and-then right? My daughter watched some educational shows on PBS so I guess all was not lost!

We did visit my sister today and we brought along a paper with her uncle's name on it. She read 'PAT' for them. They were impressed. My wife reminded me not to go crazy showing people as we don't want people putting her on the spot and making her uncomfortable about reading. Sounds like pretty good advice to me. We've got a good thing going.

Door handles

Today we went to the hospital to visit my cousin who just gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. We had a good visit and were saying goodbye when my daughter ran up to me saying 'Daddy, daddy, come and see' . She grabbed my hand and led me to the door. She pointed at the handle and said 'Look! Uh and Puh'. I looked down and sure enough, embossed in the door was the word UP! Bingo!! She's seeing letters everywhere now. On the way out I showed her PUSH on the water fountain. She knew three of the four letters! This is really cool!!

Word Whammer

The Leapfrog Word Whammer came in today. My daughter loves it and I think she'll get a lot of use out of it. She puts the letters in it and then sounds them out. When she turns it on it says the word and then sounds it out for her. It plays a little song and then sounds the word out again and says the word. Very good reinforcement.

Review day today.