Our New Reader!

Bentley finished an 80 lesson reading program (Headsprout Early Reading) on the computer. It took him just 11 weeks. (He started May 9th and finished July 25th.) At first he did two lessons a day, but towards the end he only did one. He worked hard. Most days he was excited to do it, but there were a few days he had to be encouraged.

Kara purchased this program for Bentley because he wasn't interested in learning to read with us when we tried the Bob Books. He was quite eager to do Headsprout Early Reading. Now Jake wants to have his turn at it. Viva tells me that I have to find her a princess reading program. The Headsprout program is okay, but it's not phonics based, so now we have to work on giving Bentley a solid phonics foundation.

Bentley's able to read short books with simple words in them, although he can occasionally sound out a four syllable word. He doesn't always like to sound out unfamiliar words, but after a few more months of solid reading practice he'll be so good at it that he won't notice he's doing it. That's our goal!

When Lincoln was born and he and Kara were still at the hospital, I drove the trio over there to visit them. The children brought with them books from home to share with Lincoln. I was quite surprised when Bentley read one of the books to the twins and I on the drive to the hospital. This is the first book (other than the ones that were part of the reading program) that Bentley has read himself: "One Duck Stuck".

We are all excited to have another reader in our home. We have so many books that need to be read and enjoyed. We need more readers!