Reading CELEBRATION!

C E L E B R A T E ! C E L E B R A T E ! C E L E B R A T E ! No more Headsprout lessons with two four-year-olds. It's been a long, long five months. They started the program the last few days of November. It was different working with two children rather than just one like when Bentley did the program. Kara and I couldn't trade off monitoring duty. We both had to do it or one of us had to do both Jake and Viva in one day. That requires more patience than we have.

The twins took longer to finish the program than Bentley because of holidays and vacations and their younger age and our need to space out the fun. The last twenty or so lessons we did every other day. On the off days we did phonics and read a story offline from the Headsprout story collection.

 Have the twins learned as much as Bentley did? I think they have, but Kara would say not. (She doesn't remember nine months ago when Bentley was at this point in his reading career. He's such a good reader now that it's hard to believe he was a beginning reader just nine months ago.) Jake and Viva are good beginning readers. We will continue working with them every day reading a variety of Level 1 reading books and then Level 2. Reading simple readers will be easier (and quicker!) for everyone than doing the reading program.

I have to give credit to the Headsprout reading program. It taught all three children the basics of reading. They learned a lot of phonograms with the program although not all the phonograms they need to be awesome readers. The children enjoyed doing the lessons in the program, although not so much at the end. The last 20 or more lessons require the student to read the same story three or four times. This was too many times for the twins. They did well the first time through, but each successive time they relied more on memory than on the words on the screen. It was frustrating for them and for Kara and me. Would I recommend this program for other families? Yes, but don't be afraid to modify it if you need to to suit your child.

The twins were promised a party when they finished their reading program. Viva suggested going to the bouncy house (one of those places with lots of oversized air-filled slides). Jake had asked recently to go there, so it was a good choice. I took them on Monday after they finished their last lesson.

On the way home we picked up a pepperoni pizza which is Viva's current favorite food. Jake likes it, too, but not as much as Viva who ate if for dinner, breakfast, and lunch until it was gone.

Kara made a cherry chip cake (Jake's choice) with purple icing (Viva's choice) on the side. Bentley went to the bouncy house with the twins, but he did not eat the pizza or cake. Lincoln did not go to the bouncy house, but he did eat a little pizza and cake.