This time for Jubilee (6)
and Hezekiah (4).
I have now officially taught Seven Children to Read in 700 Easy Lessons.
Okay, I suppose that is a bit of an exaggeration since two really taught themselves to read (both four-year-old boys) and I’ve never actually made it lesson 100 with any child. Each time we’ve hit lesson 70 or so the child is too busy reading books to be bothered with more “reading lessons”. But really, it seems like 700 lessons.
Since three children joined our family knowing how to read, that leaves me with seven down, and three more to go. I love the pure magic of seeing a child go from not knowing how to read, to sounding out signs as we drive down the road, to reading books…but having said that, I also feel a bit burned out in the teaching to read department. Our copy of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is literally falling apart.
And there’s no rest in sight since I really need to get on the ball and teach Mordecai to read.
After my last post about a Reading Party, I had several questions about what exactly a Reading Party is. Since we homeschool with an eclectic bunch of materials, many of the milestones in traditional schools are missing in our home. Nobody is “finishing a grade” and moving on to the next, and yet, I wanted my children to have recognition for their achievement and hard work. So instead, we invented Reading Parties. Each party has varied a bit, the only set rule is to honor the newly reading child and present them with a new book. We’ve had these parties at home with grandparents, at home with just us. We’ve had them at McDonald’s (for ice cream cones) and Baskin-Robbins. Some have been planned a week in advance and some were purely spontaneous. The details don’t really matter. It’s just one more way to add a little fun to our days.
