Learning to read

While R's mom was here to visit last year I told her that I wanted to start teaching A to read before she went to kindergarten. She told me about a book that she used to teach most of her kids how to read.

This is the book:
Since we are hoping to get A into Kindergarten this coming school year (Scary to think she is that old!) I started using this book to teach her in January.

We don't do school time every day, usually 4-5 times a week. We are now on Lesson 33... I think. She has learned so much already, it is amazing. She is writing quite a few letters and reading wonderful for a 4 year old that just started reading a little over a month ago. She is also learning how to write her name (not recommended by the book, but I wanted to teach her how).

I highly recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a way to teach their child how to read. It is really simple, the book says the lessons are supposed to be 15-20 min. long, A likes to goof off a bit so it takes up to 30 min some days, but still. They start out with a few letter sounds and every other lesson they learn another to add into it. A few days in, the child is learning how to read simple words. They later start reading a sentence, then a story that is a few sentences long, and it just keeps building. We are now on 4 sentence stories with where we are in the book.

A is having so much fun and loves it (most days) when we do school. I am excited to see how she will do once she gets in to real school. We should be finding out next week if she made it into the local charter school or not. Since her birthday is right on the border line, if she didn't get in we will be waiting until next year and try to get her in again, and have a back up school for just in case.

She is learning...

A was very upset with me today. While we were supposed to be eating lunch she and G were playing around instead. When I told the kids that they had played around enough and I was taking their lunch away A started throwing a fit. I told her that she needed to calm down and that her lunch was already gone. She then yelled at me "NEED SAY PRAYER!"

I have been trying to teach her that being angry and upset are emotions that we feel but Heavenly Father can help us to let go of those feelings. I was so happy to see that she is getting it. When we are upset if we pray for help Heavenly Father will help us to be happy again.

After saying a prayer and getting G down for quiet time, it was time for school (I'm going to blog about that next... although its going to appear above... anyways). In the short story that A read today there was mad ant. After you read the story you ask the child questions about the story to make sure they are comprehending what they are reading. One of the questions asked, "what do you think the ant is going to do?" She answered by telling me "He need say prayer".

I am so proud of my little girl! She is learning how to deal with her emotions in a positive way.