Series for Young Readers: Trucktown

My son (age 5 1/2) is sometimes a reluctant reader.  He is always eager to have stories read to him, but he's not always keen to read books on his own.  So, I'm always looking for books that are interesting to him and easy enough that he can read them without help.  If he does engage and read an easy book, it builds his confidence and he's more apt to try it again.

One series he really enjoys is called Jon Scieszka's Trucktown.  The illustrations are funny and full of personality, and the characters are wacky and always in motion.  The text is very simple, but the stories are still interesting.  This is rare to find all of these qualities in an easy reader.  Most boys will really enjoy them.  My three year old daughter also finds them entertaining, probably because some of the vehicles are girls and the pictures are very colorful.

We just finished reading Truckery Rhymes together.  It is a hilarious re-write of common nursery rhymes.  For example, instead of "Pop Goes the Weasel", it says..."Pop! Blows the Diesel".  This book was more complicated than the other Trucktown stories, so I read it to the kids.  I think your family might find it entertaining as well.

Do you have any suggestions of fun books that are great for beginning readers?  Please share your suggestions in the comments.

Our Reading Curriculum for 2012-2013

One of the biggest tasks of homeschooling is choosing what curriculum or learning plan to use.  It is overwhelming to choose as there are so many options available.   Talking to other families who homeschool and doing a lot of research on-line has been invaluable in the decision making process.  Although I've been "homeschooling" our kids from the moment they were adopted, this school year was the first official year for us as our son is now five.  I wanted to share with you what we've done this year for reading. (Keep in mind that he's doing 1st grade reading this year.)  I apologize for how long this is, but hopefully it will be a help to you!  

There are tons of products out there for teaching a step-by-step approach to phonics.  In 2011, I purchased Hooked on Phonics (pre-K thru 2^nd grade pack) to teach my son how to read.  It was a season in my life where I was constantly tired with one child who was energetic all day and another (newly adopted) who would not sleep at night.  I had to have a reading curriculum that would require little or no prep from me, and be engaging enough to interest my high octane four year old.  H.O.P. is definitely all of that, and it doesn’t require any handwriting in the early books.  It’s pricey, but a lot cheaper than preschool!  Now that I’m not exhausted all the time, I would not choose Hooked on Phonics as my go-to reading curriculum.  Since we have it, I’m using the preschool activities with our daughter.  However, I rarely use it with our son as we’ve found other books that suit us better.  We do use H.O.P. as a supplemental to get more practice in areas (like consonant blends) that challenge him.  We skip the companion videos completely as they seemed to decrease my son’s ability to focus.

What we really love for learning phonics…Explode the Code workbooks.  Yes, there’s writing, but we modify whenever possible to keep the frustration level down.  These workbooks are simple with silly illustrations and goofy sentences.  They teach phonics in a step-by-step sequence with lots of opportunity for practice, and the kids like them because they’re funny. There is a great three workbook series for pre-readers that I just purchased called Get Ready for the Code.  My daughter (age 3) and I are really enjoying book A, and it’s perfect for her ability level.  My son (age 5 ½ ) is currently working on Explode the Code book 3. We started using Explode the Code when H.O.P. got too challenging (it moves along quickly) for my son, and he began to strongly resist learning to read.  We took a break from the hard stuff and had fun going slowly through the blends in Explode the Code book 2.  Once we got through that book, he was back on track with reading and eager to read out loud with me again.

Rather than go right back to H.O.P. where we’d left off, I decided to start something fresh so we could distance ourselves from the frustration that had caused my son to plateau before Explode the Code.  Thanks to a good friend who homeschools, we decided to try the Pathway Reading Series.  There are 13 books in the series that range from first to eighth grade.   The first book is called First Steps, and is considered a beginning of the year first grade book.  It's hard to find these books, but Exodus Books always has them in stock as so many homeschool families love them.  They are very also very reasonably priced at $6.00 for a hard-bound book, and $2.50 for the workbooks.

Pathway Reading Series begins with First Steps (1st grade) and ends with Our Heritage (8th grade).

We all love this series of books!  My son and I read the stories aloud together and my daughter eagerly listens in.  I love the books because they are similar to what I had when I learned to read back in 1981.  I also chose these books because they teach values through the stories like sharing, obedience, kindness, and being helpful.  The characters are fascinating to my kids, and the stories engage their interest.  The books have simple black and white drawings.  These books were created for the Amish, so there are no pictures of people in them.   I like this because my kids are free to invent their own images of what the characters might look like.  They do enjoy the black and white illustrations of animals and farm life.

There are also workbooks that go along with each book.  The workbooks are very basic in appearance, but that’s fine with me.  I pick and chose which pages to do, focusing on activities that test comprehension, critical thinking, and grammar.  We skip a lot of busy work, and often I will write in the answers as the lines are too tiny for my son’s level of handwriting.  There are auditory tests where he has to circle the word I say, or chose the picture that matches the scenario I read about.  I especially like to do these pages since his answers give me a better understanding of his listening and comprehension skills. 

To round out our reading curriculum, we read aloud twice daily to both of our kids.  We often visit the library to have fresh stories to enjoy together.  I try to get books to engage each of my children individually and some books that they both will like.  We also get books with a CD so they can sit together and listen to a story being read to them.  Most nights, my husband has been reading a novel to the family.  He’s read: The Hobbit, Wind in the Willows, Little House in the Big Woods, Stuart Little, and the entire series about Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary.  Of course, there was some editing of certain things when it was inappropriate for little ears to hear.  I’ve been impressed with the kids’ ability to listen to a chapter and actually comprehend some or most of it.  They really enjoy this family time and often beg for another chapter.  Love it!

My husband reading The Gruffalo's Child to our two cuties.

A great resource to inspire reading together is a book called First Favorites by Veritas Press.  It recommends 13 different fairly well-known children’s books, some classic and some more modern.  After reading the book aloud, there are activity pages to do together.  It’s writing intensive, which we skipped for reasons already mentioned.  However, it was still fun for us to go beyond the story and do something fun together.  For example, after reading the story Blueberries for Sal, we learned about how bears hibernate.  We colored pictures of bears and then tucked the pictures away in closets so they could hibernate.  When spring arrived, we took our pictures out and celebrated that the bears woke up.  I also bought some blueberries and we made a blueberry pie! 

In a 2012 post, The Next Steps Toward Learning to Read, I mentioned some great books to check out for beginning readers.  These books are very easy so your just learning to read child can delight in reading a story to you. 

Got some great reading books or ideas to share?  Leave me a comment.  I'd love to hear from you.

A Typical Homeschool Morning

When we started on the adventure of teaching our kids at home, I had no idea what a normal day should look like.  Perhaps you are also wondering how to get started.  Let me share with you some of the details of this morning so you can get a glimpse into our routine. (My son is five and my daughter is three.)

Here are the resources we used for today's lessons.

We started off at 10:00 am with handwriting pages that I’d printed out from Starfall.com.  Yesterday, I noticed that my son was not writing his e’s or u’s properly, so I printed out the worksheets for extra practice.  Some of the pages were too simple for him, so I gave them to my daughter.  She likes to be included, and my son is an extrovert and prefers to have someone else working with him, so they were both happy.  

While my son worked independently, I sat on the floor next to my daughter and we counted eggs on her letter e worksheet.  I helped her write the numbers in the box.  Then we colored eggs that had capital E and lower case e on them.  We also had time to do the letter u page.  Once we finished that, I gave Marisa markers and she colored her pages.

That gave me time to help Kieran think of words that started with E, and write out the word egg.  We focused on staying in the lines and writing as neatly as possible.  I could tell he was getting frustrated after one page of handwriting, so I gave him the option to move on to math.  He was happy to skip the letter u worksheet.  I decided we could tackle that tomorrow.

I gave my son a brief explanation of the two math pages and hopped back to my daughter.  She was done coloring, so we moved on to reading.  I used a flip chart to review the –at words she’s been learning to read. The few words she needed to sound out, my son chimed in and sounded out with her.  (He gets distracted easily, so I had to remind him to move away from us and get his math done.)

These are the activities I did with my daughter today.  

Since Marisa got through the flip chart so easily, I pulled out her Hooked on Phonics preschool book and we hunted for pictures that started with the letter L.  By the end of that page, she was getting antsy to do something else.  I let her choose some stickers for her good work, and then she was off to play.  She plays quietly and independently- which is a huge blessing- so now I was able to give Kieran my undivided attention.

I must add that throughout the time I was helping Marisa, Kieran was interrupting to ask for help, or just to show off his work.  He is a brilliant boy, but often needs reassurance.  He is progressing at being able to finish a whole page, but when we first started kindergarten, he was not able to do three problems on his own.  This may be typical for some kids.  Thankfully, they all mature eventually and get past needing someone to hold their hand all the time.

Back to math…my son is doing Horizons math book 1.  It is actually quite easy for him, but because of his struggle with handwriting we are moving through it at a slower pace.  Today he was enthusiastic about the pages and wanted to do two extra pages.  Great!!  This is the beauty of homeschool.  We go at the pace of each child.  Too hard, slow down.  Too easy, move ahead.  Not working, find something else that does. 

Here is a peek at some of the pages my son did today.

So, we breezed through math and moved on to Explode the Code book 3. I modified the assignment to focus on just the phonics and skip the writing portion.  Asking him to do more handwriting at this point in the day would have pushed us both over the edge! My son did well, but struggled with reading plate vs. plane.  This was a clue to me that he’s not really looking at the whole word, but just enough of it to make a guess.  I made a note in his book to practice more words like these next time.  

After Explode the Code, we moved on to our final assignment: short and long vowel words.  I have a list of 18 short vowel words on a page. I put a plastic cover over the sheet so we can write on it with a Vis a Vis marker, erase, and use it again later.  I had him read the word can, then I wrote an e behind it to make cane.  When we got to man/mane it prompted an interesting discussion on the definitions of mane, Maine, and main.  Once we were done, I made a quick note of the words that were difficult for Kieran so we can practice those next time. 

I got this idea from working at Sylvan.  It's a great way to help your child practice the silent e rule.

By 11:00 my son’s attention span was spent.  He was eager to run to the window and watch his daddy mow the lawn.  While the kids watched my husband, I made brief notes on my iPad for our next class based on the progress and struggles we had today.  It took me about five minutes to complete.

That’s a fairly typical homeschool day.  Although the official learning time has ended, we are never really done teaching.  All day we will have teachable moments where we are imparting something to them.  But that’s a post for another day. 

Next time I will post more specifics on the books we are using this year as choosing curriculum can be one of the most daunting parts of jumping into homeschool.  

Kindergarten Homeschool: Handwriting

I've been wanting to share about our homeschooling curriculum, but it's hard to find time to post these days!  Today I'll focus on our handwriting workbook.  A big part of kindergarten is learning to print.  We are really enjoying A Reason for Handwriting.  The pages are in color.  Each one features an animal to color on one side, and lots of room to practice the letters on the opposite side.  The lines are spaced well so a beginning writer doesn't have to write tiny letters.  Also, they introduce letters according to how they're written rather than alphabetically.  That way the same motions are being practiced for a while before learning something completely different.  One other thing I like is that the pages can be torn out so he doesn't have to battle keeping the book open while he's trying to write.  My son always has a positive response when we pull out the handwriting book.

Next year, the 1st grade book will introduce writing out scripture verses.  Once the child has written out a verse, he or she can send it to someone as a way to share God's Word and also show off their best handwriting.  I would highly recommend this series of workbooks (K-6th) for non-homeschooling families as well.  It could be something to do at home for more practice, or over the summer to keep their skills sharp.  Today I chatted with a mom whose kids are in public school.  Her daughters' school is no longer teaching cursive, so she's planning to get this series and teach her girls cursive at home.  Love it!  I think cursive is still important and should be taught.  What are your thoughts about that?

This is my son's kindergarten handwriting workbook.

Thanksgiving Tree

Long time since I've posted here...sorry!  Things are going well, but it's busy home schooling the kids and keeping up with the daily stuff as well.  I thought I'd share our latest project in case someone else might be inspired by it.  I wanted to do some sort of art project for Thanksgiving with the kids that would focus on the reason for the holiday: gratitude.  So, I pondered for a while and came up with the idea of a Thanksgiving Tree.  It was easy and fun to do.  We had a great time and actually didn't get extremely messy, which was good since we were not in paint clothes!  While the kids were "napping" in their rooms,  I painted trees onto the back side of wrapping paper.  I used FolkArt paint from Wal-mart.  It dries fast and washes off easily, plus it's only .97 cents per bottle.  Once the trees were dry, I painted the kids' hands to make the leaves.  We put twenty two "leaves" on each tree since Thanksgiving is on the 22nd this year.  Each day, starting November 1st, we'll write one thing that they are thankful for on a leaf.  Then, on Thanksgiving day, the kids will have a tree full of blessings that we can talk about while we enjoy our turkey dinner.  Here are some pictures in case you want to make your own.

I painted the trees onto the back side of wrapping paper.  Older kids could paint their own tree.  If you want to make it into an art lesson, have them observe trees outside to see how the limbs look without the leaves.

Next I added a bit of grass at the base of the tree so it didn't look like it was floating on the page.  I also added a title so we'd know whose tree belong to whom.  Before we started painting our leaves, I asked the kids to look outside at the variety of leaves on the trees in our backyard.  We named the different colors we saw so the kids would know why we were using the variety of colors I chose for this project.

Time to get messy!  I folded the paper so the kids could reach the limbs of the trees without ripping up the paper by crawling on it.  I opted to do one kid at a time, and just one hand painted at a time.  Marisa wanted to try painting her own hand.  I let her for a couple of leaves.  She did amazingly well for not even three years old!  (We did eleven leaves with the left hand then washed and took a break so those could dry.)

While Marisa's eleven leaves were drying, Kieran had a turn to do some leaves on his tree.  I did most of the painting on his hand, but let him try a couple on his own.  He was a bit more enthusiastic with the paint, but only got a bit on his jeans.  It washed out no problem.  Once his eleven leaves were done, then sister had a turn again to do the rest with her right hand.  The key for these guys was to do one kid at a time, and only one hand at a time...making sure to escort them to the sink so we didn't paint the whole kitchen.  :)

Here's Marisa with her finished project.  (She loves her "Penny the Penguin" from Koala Brothers.)

Here's Kieran with his Thanksgiving Tree.  (Love that smile!)

Both trees are on the wall in the dining room where we do our home school lessons.  We'll write one thing that we are thankful for on a leaf each day in November till Thanksgiving.  Then while we eat our meal, we can review all the amazing things God has blessed us with this year.

Next it was time to let the kids photograph mom.  Kieran decided to go artistic and slant the camera while he snapped the picture.  I think it turned out well.  :)

With a bit of trepidation, I let Marisa (the two year old!) hold my giant camera.  She actually got a decent photo of Kieran and me.  Everybody was all smiles after having a good time painting.  There were tense moments, but overall it was just fun.  I'm eager for November to arrive so we can start writing on our leaves.

Parenting is hard work, and not every day is all smiles and silliness like we had this afternoon.  However, it's the moments like these that I blog about so I can remember and know that there are a lot of good times mixed in with the tough ones.  Perhaps my blogs are a kind of Thanksgiving tree for me. How do you help your kids (and yourself) develop grateful hearts?  I'd love to hear from you.

A Math Lesson: Adding to Ten

With the holidays over, we have been back into the swing of things with homeschool.  We did a lesson recently on ways to add up to ten.  My goal is for K to memorize all the math facts that add up to ten.  We'll get there eventually.  The introductory lesson for this was something I made up using ten cars and a homemade "math board".  For the math board, I glued two pieces of yellow cardstock to a bigger piece of cardboard.  I wrote a plus sign in between the yellow papers and an equals ten on the right.  Easy!

At the beginning of the lesson, we counted out ten cars.  Then we took turns placing a random number of cars on each piece of yellow cardstock.  We counted them (ex: 7 cars on the left and 3 cars on the right) and wrote down the "new" way to add to ten (7+3=10).  My son was more interested in driving his cars around, so I had to make up little stories as to where they were going in order to finish the lesson. (These five cars are driving to Costco, and these five cars are going to Red Robin for burgers and fries!)  I didn't think that he was really connecting with it, and was sort of disappointed with the end result.  However, about a week later he was watching a LeapFrog video (Math Adventure to the Moon) and there is a segment where Tad & Lilly find all the ways to add up to ten.  He quickly pointed out, "Hey, they are adding up to ten!"  Cool, he really did get something out of the lesson!  

After the introductory lesson,  I made flash cards and we review them now and then usually at meal times.  Of course, he's figured out the answer is always ten so I threw in a couple that don't equal ten just to make sure he's paying attention.  For our next lesson, I'm planning to make a worksheet with the problems written out like this: 4 + _____= 10.  Then I'll know if he really knows the answer and isn't just saying, "ten" to everything.  Most likely, we'll pull out the goldfish crackers to help as counters for the problems he doesn't know the answers to.  In my experience, kids tend to like math a lot more if there is food involved!  

The Next Steps Towards Learning to Read

So, your child knows the ABCs and the sounds that they all make.  Now what?  Start putting together three letters words with a short vowel in the middle.  The curriculum I used with my son focuses on one ending sound per lesson.  I've listed them below so you can see the progression and use it if you want to.  Overall, the strategy is a simple one and it works because it's phonics based.

Lesson 1: -at (bat, cat, mat, sat, etc...)
Lesson 2: -an
Lesson 3: -ap
Lesson 4: -ad
Lesson 5: -am
Lesson 6: -ag
Lesson 7: -ab
Lesson 8: -ig
Lesson 9: -id
Lesson 10: -it
Lesson 11: -ip
Lesson 12: -im
Lesson 13: -in
Lesson 14: -ix
Lesson 15: -ill
Lesson 16: Add -s to the end of words

In my post Reading Readiness Part 2: Phonics, I shared a bunch of activities that you can do to practice the various endings I've listed above.  Also, if you want a good book that will guide you in teaching your child how to read, check out The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading at your local library.  I am not using that book, but have read through it.  It doesn't have fancy graphics, but will give practical guidance.  I chose not to use it because I wanted a workbook driven program that would have glossy pages, nice illustrations, and little to no prep work for me.  (I am definitely a visual learner!)

In our reading program, Hooked on Phonics, there are also sight words that are introduced along the way. They are simple words that show up often in daily reading, so it's a good idea to have your child memorize them.  Some of the sight words can be sounded out with the phonics rules, but others don't play by the rules and it's just easier to memorize them.  (For example, the word "THE" is impossible to sound out.)  You can introduce the sight words two at a time, or three at most.  The goal is to not overwhelm the child with things to memorize since we want them to focus on sounding out words.  I made flashcards for each word and we reviewed them during meal times.

Here are the beginning level sight words:
he
a
the
no
and
has
is
on
she
what
this
they
go
have
do
look

Now I'm Reading! Series

Finally, kids love to be able to use their new reading skills to read a real book.  It's hard to find something they can read immediately after they learn "at" words, but I have a few suggestions for you.  Check out from your local library the Bob Books.  These books are very basic, the illustrations are underwhelming, but the text is perfect for the beginning reader.  My son was not inspired by them, but maybe your child will be.  We had more success with Pig Wig, Wet Pet, Stop Pop, and Quack Shack by Yukiko Kido.  (Warning: Crab Cab has some gross words and pictures ie: snot pot-- so you might want to avoid that book in the series.) The books have eye-catching illustrations, some cut-outs, and one or two words per page.  We really like them and have checked them out several times from the library; I'm thinking of purchasing a few.  The other series that I would highly recommend is called Now I'm Reading! for Beginning Readers by Nora Gaydos, illustrated by BB Sams.  We own the 20 book set called Animal Pals, but I can not find it on Amazon.  They seem to have split it up into two 10 book sets.  Anyway, the books all contain simple short vowel words, with vivid and silly illustrations.  The books start out easy and slowly become more complex as you progress through the series.  The only drawback is that they are more wordy than the other books I've mentioned.  One tactic that works for books like these is to share the reading and you read page one, your child reads page two.  That way you can get through the whole book without your child feeling overwhelmed.

Pig Wig by Yukiko Kido: Perfect for readers who are just beginning to learn how to read.

If you have found some good beginning reader books, please share the titles in the comments.  I am always looking for books for K to read.  Also, you can have your child help you make up stories using the words he or she knows how to read.  We haven't tried that yet, but it sounds like fun.  Sometime in the future I'll share more about our reading program with the next level of word endings and sight words. Until then, let me know how your little readers are doing.  :)

My little reader.  He's pretending to read this book:
Diamond in the Snow by Jonathan Emmett

My pre-reader.  She loves to look at books
and listen while we read to her.  

Teaching the Alphabet to Miss M

Last year I shared some reading readiness tips that I used with my son when he was two.  Now my daughter is a month away from turning two, and she's also on a journey toward learning to read.  Sadly, I have less time to devote to teaching her, but she's still progressing nicely and knows more than 50% of the alphabet.  Here are some of the tools I've used with her that I didn't have when her big brother was two:

·      Our new favorite book: Learn with Humphrey ABC by Sally Hunter.  It's from the UK, but I'm hopeful that you all will be able to find it locally.  The illustrations are just adorable!

·      LeapFrog magnetic alphabet for the fridge (I like these because they are too big for kids to swallow!) I picked up two sets at garage sales last summer for about a dollar or two each.  They came with an attachment that says the name of the letter and it's sound, but it's annoying.  I put that part up and we just enjoy the letters.  

Here are a few suggestions of ways you can use the letters to help you teach your child:

•  You can display several letters at a time to introduce them rather than overwhelm with all 26.
• Or just have up the letters that they haven’t learned yet. We did this for a while and I encouraged big brother to teach his little sister the letters whenever they were hanging out in the kitchen.  Not sure how effective it was, but they had fun.
• Use the letter to attach something to the fridge that starts with that letter.  Right now we have Christmas photos with the letter that corresponds to the family’s last name holding the photo in place.   (That's more of an activity for big brother, but both kids get something out of it.)

·      Melissa & Doug train alphabet puzzle- very cool; it’s 10 feet long!  

·      Foam letters in the bathtub- they stick nicely to the tub sides, but do clutter up the bathroom.

·      LeapFrog laptop.  I'm sorry to say that my daughter learned most of her letters from this.  You can personalize it so the laptop will say the child’s name, sing a song with your child’s name in it, and include brief emails from family members.  (My son also has one, but at age 4 he gets bored with it faster than she does.)  It's perfect for teaching letter names and their sounds.  I got one for each of our kids as a way to keep them busy at the rehearsal for my sister's wedding.  It's a nice item to pull out when I need them to stay busy, but it is a noise making toy so I don't leave it out all of the time.

It also comes  in green and white for boys.

Besides the gadgets, books, etc...we are also singing the ABC song at various times through out the day, and taking the time to point out letters where we see them.  I was impressed a couple of months back when my daughter noticed the contrails of two jets in the sky.  She shouted out, "X!" and pointed up.  Sure enough, there was a perfect X.  My kids are often reminding me that kids are smarter than we think they are!

For my next post, I will share a road map of the kindergarten reading program I used with my son.  It' works!!  Forgive me if it takes a while to get it posted, but I promise to share the strategies so you can use them too.  

Preschool at Home: Finger Painting

I discovered a great resource for doing preschool at home.  It's a book called: Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander.  It suggests age appropriate activities for each week of your child's life from birth to age 5.  I decided to try out the activity listed for M's age (almost 21 months old).  Personally, I'd never offer my less than two year old paint, but if the book said they could handle it then I was willing to give it a try.  My sister was visiting, so each kid had an adult nearby to keep things from going crazy.  I cut up some celery, carrots, and apples so we could use them for making prints on paper.  Eventually, it turned into finger painting and we got quite messy.  But everybody had fun and M actually enjoyed it the most.  She's quite the little artist!  

Our lovely Miss M jumped right in and started stamping away like a pro.  

Our little group: K (in Daddy's old shirt), Auntie, Miss M, and Mommy.

Celery seemed to work the best for little hands and made neat designs.

Big Brother K refused to smile while Daddy took pictures of our happy group.
Auntie knew how to make Mr. K smile though!  No faces were actually
painted in the the making of this smile.  :) 

Preschool or Homeschool...It's No Longer A Question

Our son turned four recently!  He's learning to read with Hooked on Phonics.

Last year I started teaching my son how to read.  Then we got our referral from China and all formal homeschooling came to a screeching halt as we adjusted to life with a new baby girl.  Almost a year went by (time does fly!) while I debated about what was the best path to take for K's education.  I was contemplating preschool mostly as a way to give him a "social life" and me a break with his little sis for a couple of hours.  Fall was nearing, and K's 4th birthday, so I knew it was time to make some decisions.  My husband was not in favor of sending our son to preschool.  He had a lot of good reasons.  My reasons for opting for preschool I mentioned above.  I looked into a church preschool near our home that had been highly recommended thinking maybe I could persuade my husband to change his mind.  Once I saw the curriculum and the cost it was obvious that preschool was not the right choice for our son.  They charged $120 per month, for four hours of instruction per week, to teach the kids the alphabet and the sounds they make.  Plus some counting, shapes and colors, etc... would be included.  I couldn't justify sending our son off to a school that would teach him what he already knows. That seemed silly to me and a real waste of money.  I looked at Hooked on Phonics and found out with an on-line coupon, it was only $140 for the entire package which includes preschool-2nd grade books, workbooks, dvd, and parent guides!  I'd pay almost that much in one month for him to learn four letters of the alphabet at the local preschool!!  So, I ordered Hooked on Phonics that very day.  We have been working through the program for about a month now. We love it! The preschool level was too easy (I'll use it for little sis eventually), so we jumped in at the kindergarten level.  K & I are both enjoying it a lot.  We do our homeschool lesson while little sis naps.  It has become a special bonding time.  Besides learning to read, he also does one activity sheet (from the H. on P. preschool extras worksheets) of his choosing.  Usually it involves cutting and pasting, which are new skills for him.  He's also practicing drawing and writing letters as well.  I know there are probably tons of programs that teach children to read successfully.  I was too tired to try and research a bunch, so I went with what I'd heard about.  It is working, and K is reading the little books with simple words that they provide as well as some books that I have or have checked out from the library.  What I like best about it is that it's sequential and organized.  It gives me a starting point to work from, and then I can get creative and add to it to fit what my son needs.  For example, he was struggling with certain words and ending sounds.  So I used a variety of methods (flip chart, letter cubes, magna doodle, home made worksheet...) to just review those words until he got them fluently.  Then we moved on with the H. on P. program.  I hope to share more about teaching K to read at home.  For now, I just wanted to share an update and give a plug for homeschooling.  It rocks! I'm so glad that I made the choice I did, and I have to admit that my husband was right about preschool.  It's sad that I took so long to agree with him on it.

Upgrade

I am reading a great book about the "ten secrets to the best education for your child".  It's called Upgrade by Kevin Swanson.  Check it out and see what you think.  Although the focus is education, I'm finding a lot of helpful parenting advice in this book too.  It's hard to sum up all the awesome things this book addresses, so I'll just recommend it and let you find out for yourself.  If you are considering homeschool, this book is a must read.  If your child is struggling in a certain subject at school, this book may give you some direction or inspiration on how to help them succeed.

This book will encourage you and maybe surprise you too.