The twins started the Headsprout reading program one year ago, at the very end of November 2011. They finished the Headsprout program five months later and then we started reading beginning reader books together and doing the phonics cards. Both Jake and Viva are excellent readers now. It's amazing what words they can read--seven syllable words that they cannot define! We still do phonics card practice five days a week and I ask them to read outloud to me at least a couple of times a week. I want to make sure they continue to sound out new words and don't get lazy and skip over them. It's an easy habit for new readers to fall into. It's a very bad habit that I do not want them to acquire!
Jake is reading a series titled The Dragon Slayers' Academy. Bentley recommended it to him. I had to read the first chapter with him to convince him that he could read it himself. He's finished the first two books and is reading the third one. We haven't found a series that Viva loves yet, but we will. Viva reads a lot of books every day. She chooses books from the schoolroom reading shelf, from the Christmas box, from her bedroom shelves, and from my bedroom shelves. She's always loved to look at books, but now she's reading them, too. Very cool.
I just started a new reading program with the twins. They have daily reading time in the morning when they read by themselves for 20 minutes or 20 pages. It's really not necessary to have an assigned reading time because they both like to read and they do so on their own without prompting. If they don't read on any given day it's because they are busy with other activites, not because they are avoiding reading.
I’m very proud of both Jake and Viva. They worked hard this past year and it shows. They are good readers. Awesome, awesome job twins!
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