A big milestone
I don’t claim to be a very good educator. There are some things I’m good at but a lot of things I’m not. One of the things I’m good at is finding resources to help my children learn the things I’m not good at teaching them. One thing I’m not good at is teaching my kids to read. I’ve always been really mystified at how other parents do it without any effort or thought, seemingly. To me, the learning-to-read process boggles the mind.
When Dalton was “of age”, he was in public school so I didn’t have the shoulder that particular burden. I still felt pretty obligated, though, to prepare him for public school by cramming reading skills down this throat. It wasn’t fun or pleasant for either of us. And it was particularly successful.
Teegan was a self-taught learner which is a good thing because I was still burnt out from my bad experience with Dalton.
But Noah is a different character. This fall we started homeschool kindergarten and I thought I’d give it a stab one more time. I found a great curriculum I thought would work really well with Noah’s personality. After the first week I was pretty sure it just would not work out. He has no attention span, I have no patience. He seemed to be retaining nothing, I hated the program. He was asking for math and asking to skip reading.
But at some point we turned a corner and things got easier and easier. I tweaked the program to make it faster and rearranged the lessons so they made more sense to me (and Noah) and suddenly he started asking for reading lessons instead of math. I started seeing signs of success outside our little lessons and Noah’s writing (small motor) skills also took off.
Yesterday, weekend and all, he asked to do his final lessons. He finished learning the last of the alphabet letters. At the beginning of September he could not recognize any of them on site, he knew none of their sounds and he could not even draw a very good circle. Now, just two months later, he knows them all on sight, he can draw each one and he knows all of their noises, even the vowels. His penmanship is amazing. He’s finished the kindergarten curriculum for reading. If you would have asked me what the likelihood was that we’d get this far by Halloween I would have said it was impossible.
To say that he is proud would be an understatement. He got a certificate yesterday for finishing that he proudly carried around all day. He called his grandparents to brag and his Grandma S~ told him that she thought if he puts his certificate under his pillow that the Reading Fairy will come. 
Boy she has all the good ideas, huh?
So last night the Reading Fairy DID come by with some new books. Who knew?!
I’m so proud of his success and mine. For some kids this stuff just comes naturally but Noah’s not that kind of kid. To see him thriving makes me feel so good about our homeschooling.
Next week we move on to the *real* reading lessons. Let’s hope they are as easy and fun as things have been so far.
October 28th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Where can I get this curriculum of which you speak?
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October 28th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Wow, I think that’s great!! And I *love* the reading fairy idea!
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October 28th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Reading Fairy??? Who would have thunk it, huh? Tell Grandma thanks for the idea. I’ll hang on to that one for the future.
Way to go, Noah! Keep up the good work!
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October 28th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Ha she read any actual books yet? If not, Go Dog Go is a perfect starter.
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October 28th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
All three of us, J~, E~, and I also read Go Dog Go as our first book.
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October 28th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
This is why I’m such a huge homeschool advocate. What if Noah were in a school where he couldn’t get the cirriculum? Do you really think a teacher with 40 other kids could tweek it to match his style so he’d catch on? I doubt most would, some maybe, they are out there, but why risk it. Good job Nicki! Mommies know how their kids learn, and one of the great things too is learning about your own limitations. It is OKAY to say that you are unable to teach something. I’ve told you before, I use tutors and co-ops just for that very reason. I’m proud of you, and especially Noah!!!!
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October 28th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Can the reading fairy come to my house and leave something for me? That would be SO much cheaper than what I normally spend at B&N on a weekly basis
Way to go Noah! (and you too - what a gift you’re giving him!)
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October 28th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Some great EASY first books are Scholastic’s Bob Books Series. The first few books use the most common consanants and only short vowel a (if I’m remembering correctly.)
We had similar issue with Olivia, we changed her reading curriculum to “Every Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading” and she sped through it and was reading in no time flat (my youngest has now went through this as well, GREAT phonics program!) The key for her was for it to be something separate from handwritting (her worst subject by far) and something that she could learn by hearing and not doing workbook pages. I love homeschooling!
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October 28th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
The reading fairy, in fact, brought the first set of Bob books! I love those books.
I wish I knew about your reading program when my older boys were little. They HATED writing (still do) and anything that combined the two would have been OUT.
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October 28th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Are you kidding me Nicki? You are a born educator! Congrats to you and Noah for your hard work - that’s so awesome. The reading fairy is the coolest idea ever.
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October 29th, 2007 at 7:54 am
I love the reading fairy idea! K12 has a really good phonics curriculm, but we never do it *exactly* they way they say to. That is the great thing about homeschooling, isn’t it? I know I’ve said it before, but we are big fans of the Leap Frog Letter Factory (and other Factory) DVDs. And, new to us this year, is Super Why and Word World on PBS. I know it sounds like I just plop my kids in front of the t.v. all the time, but really, I don’t. These shows are great, though, for teaching and reinforcing the phonics and beginning reading. I’ve never seen the Bob books, but Dr. Suess has always been a fun and easy place for my kids to get started (well, in addition to the K12 phonics books, which are reminiscent of Dick and Jane books).
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October 30th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
A great “lightbulb” moment to remember…I felt very frustrated with my youngest and then one day it clicked. What curriculum did you use? She was the only of mine who almost used the entire Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons books.
I love hearing about your milestones.
Reminds me of our early years homeschooling.
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November 7th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
**totally stealing the reading fairy right now!**
We pulled our daughter out, eight weeks into Kindy… I couldn’t take it anymore. I HAD a plan, and after a week I stopped feeling guilty that it wasn’t working. She’s reading (sort of), and she’ll work on math (sort of)… now if I could just get her to write properly… ok, i’ll settle for legibly…
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