We ended the first full week of "not back to school" school today. Only a few tears were shed by Grace when I asked her to write the words for the numbers 1 - 20. She came to me crying that if they wanted the number eight to sound like "a" they should of just started it with an "a". Well, we got through that and now that she knows how to spell eight, she doesn't remember what all the fuss was even about.

As I peruse blogs lately, I notice a common thread; concern over teaching/learning to read. I am no expert, however, I have taught two of my four children to read so far. As a first time reading teacher, I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We completed all 100 lessons and then went right on to the 20 recommended reading selections along with making the word flashcards. The program worked fine. I do have to say that I think I learned more about reading than did Grace. Being the good student/reader/speller that I am, I took reading for granted and never thought about phonics rules and how they relate to the English language. The 100 lessons did teach me many of the phonics rules that I took for granted and made it very easy for me to forge on without any "real" curriculum to teach reading to my next child, Lee. With Lee I set aside the 100 easy lessons and picked up the Bob Books. We love them! The tiny booklets are the perfect size for pint sized hands. The stories are cute without being stupid and if used in order, Level A - Level C, they offer a good reading start. Slowly many of the phonics "rules" are used, although they are not formally introduced. You need to know the rules so you can point them out to your child. My children and I are also extremely happy with a program called Happy Phonics (which can be purchased through www.lovetolearn.net) The author wrote this program to teach phonics to her 7 or 8 children. The games are simple, fun and easy for a parent to use on a daily basis. Currently we have been playing "The Castle Game", which focuses on hearing the short vowel sounds in words. So far I have found games that are suitable for my 4 year old, 6 1/2 year old and 8 year old. One more book I would recommend checking out from your local library is The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. This book is similar in style to 100 easy lessons, however, it does not contain all the stupid stories. It is more thorough; it covers more of the phonics rules and I believe helps children sound out words better. It also teaches word families (cat, hat, mat, rat, sat) which I've found very helpful for young readers. Check it out and good luck with your reading adventure!