Reading Update

Reading is a BIG THING in our household. Reading to the children has always been important, but since Bentley learned to read and the twins started reading lessons, reading has become the number one priority. Every day we must make time for reading with three different small children--time for them to read to us and time for us to read to them. Of course, time must also be made to read to the baby. Often we have Bentley help us out with that.

So how are our young readers doing? Bentley is doing awesome. He has gone from not reading a single word eight months ago to reading short chapter books. Last week B was reading a chapter a day to his mom from a Nate the Great book. One afternoon he asked to finish the book instead of waiting for the next day to read the next chapter. When he finished the book, he wanted to immediately read another one in the series. He read that book on his own in a single sitting. Occasionally he spelled out a word for us to help him with. The book had 47 pages. A few pages had no words, but some pages had more than a hundred words on the page. Truly Bentley's reading skills are awesome!

How is Jake doing? Jake is a natural at reading. He's picking it up easily. Sometimes he struggles a little with the Headsprout lesson--he needs extra encouragement--but he can easily read the small books and short stories that come with the program. He's a whiz at the flash cards. There are a few words that stump him, but most words he can sound out easily.

How is Viva doing? Well...Viva is a challenge for her reading support staff. It requires a lot of patience when working with her. She does nearly as well as Jake with the online Headsprout lesson, but put a book in front of her or do the flash cards with her and you need to have a lot of time and patience. Viva is a guesser. Her independent nature requires that she do things her way and she prefers to give a guess or two (or three!) before attempting to sound out the word using her newly acquired reading skills.

If the word is Lee, she might guess Scout. If you say "No, look at the word", she will look, but then give another guess, "Pip!". You must then practice more patience (as she bounces half on/half off her chair) and coax her to decode the word rather than make guesses. If the first card she reads is flip and the next card is flips, she will not see the connection.

Is she learning to read? Yes. Is it an exercise in long suffering for her helpers? For sure. Some of us are better at helping her than others. Oddly enough, I find her amusing. Her antics don't usually bother me--even the squirming. That's one reason we homeschool, so our little squirmers can squirm away. There are no rules about sitting still in our classroom.