Teach Your Child to Read in 215 Lessons

The title of the book is of course Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy lessons. But we have had to take it slower with Dino (son#1). We have had to spread lessons over 2 or 3 days. The book is amazing. I have met many mom's who have successfully used it for their children. Realistically, lessons should only take 10-20 minutes a day, unless you have a reluctant one. Dino gets frustrated if he messes up. So there is a lot of encouragement to get through it. Or positive reinforcement with quarters or treats. We have been doing the book pretty consistently since April. We are at Lesson 70. It takes a while for the ball to get rolling, so its important to follow the lessons carefully. The lessons build on each other and around lesson 30 or so, you can see it working. I understand your child will be near a 2nd grade level when finished. I think we will!

Yesterday, was very busy. Homeschool soccer and some nice people helping us finish our front yard gardening swallowed the day up. So officially we did just P.E.

Today was our quarterly doctor's appointment, so we only did a bit of dinosaur drawing and have almost finished our reading lesson. I would of pushed for more schoolwork, but he needed a nap after the morning's appointment and a playdate with our n'borhood buddy. Dino is a very social creature and really thrives off of playdates. They played with dinosaurs, played tag and shot each other with plastic guns. Dino even tried to read his lesson to his buddy, but he wasn't interested. Dino plays with son#2 (haven't thought up a clever nickname yet for him) and his 2 younger siblings, so its not like he is deprived for friends.

We did talk about other peoples feelings today. When we were at the appointment we saw a kid with a mishapen eye. "Why does he have a silly eye", Dino asked. I guess in the past 4 years of going, he's never really noticed the other kids in the waiting room. So we talked about how it would feel if someone called you silly because your left hand is bigger than your right. Also he never noticed that before either. The difference is not that dramatic. But it was good to finally have the talk about kids in wheelchairs that we see when we go. How glad I am that these moments are shared between us, and I get to be the authoritative voice and not some peer's perception on the matter. It was nice little talk with all 4 kids outside the building.

I am off to make pizza dough. If the kids were up I would turn it into math lessons with using the measuring cups for flour like we did on Tuesday when we made oatmeal cookies.