Reading Machine

Joshua really seems to have turned a corner in his reading skills. We have been working for a week or so on sounding out simple words. He would kind of get it sometimes, but usually would either just start saying random words to try to guess what it said or just get frustrated and give up. He learned his letter sounds so fast, I just knew the concept of putting the sounds together would click with him sooner or later. We just needed to keep at it. I had this great idea to try to keep him motivated to learn to read. We have a great Dr. Seuss book "Hop on Pop", so we decided to work on a few pages of the book everyday. If he sounded out the words, we would put a sticker on each page he read. He seemed to be gung ho about the idea, and it has really worked for him. But when we would do our reading as part of our bedtime routine, we noticed that he was very fidgety and his attention span was about that of a gnat, so we decided to take some time each afternoon when we got home, before the TV is turned on. What a difference that made! He wasn't as tired and was able to really concentrate and was totally getting it! He sounded out all of his "all" words (all, fall, tall, small) and didn't get frustrated or try to give up! We were so proud of him! Then when I was putting him to bed, he asked if we could do the word flash cards. Of course I wasn't going to turn that golden opportunity down! So we got the cards out and I covered up the pictures so that just the word was showing. He sounded out the words frog, yarn, zipper, moon, train, tree, pig, dog, and duck. It is so cool to see the lightbulb starting to go off. Before we know it, he'll be reading to us. I can't wait!!!