Read! Read! Read!

We have three young readers in our home. We are very pleased with their hard work and good progress.

Bentley is an excellent reader. His phonics skills are so good that he can figure out the pronunciation of words he doesn't even know. The other day I had him read a door sign that included words like facility and premises. He could read the sign, but he didn't comprehend it. Six is a little young to have an adult vocabulary. We'll give him another three years. He was reading a lot, but then summer came and guests came and he reprioritized his time. That's okay. Winter will be here soon enough.

Jake's reading has really taken off. He reads quite smoothly with only a slight pause when sounding out more difficult words. He reads some books to himself now, spelling out loud the words he needs help with. There is a letter or two he doesn't know the name of so that provides a bit of a challenge when spelling the word. During daily reading practice we still ask him to read out loud, although he doesn't think he needs the practice any longer. He reads with good inflection. The first series of books that he read on his own was the Little Bear series by Else Minarik. He really liked them. Soon he will be borrowing from Bentley's library.

Viva is getting better at reading, too. She still likes to guess words by looking at the pictures on the page rather than sounding the word out, but she's doing less guessing than before. She's become a good enough reader that sounding out words isn't such a trial for her so she does it more often. Some words she guesses just to be obstinate. She knows that I want her to sound out every word, so she makes occasional guesses to prove her independence. And sometimes when I compliment her on sounding out a hard word, she tells me that she didn't sound it out, she guessed it. That's our Viva. She is just starting to read a little on her own.