He's a reader!

We started home schooling this year and have definitely faced a few challenges; the biggest was reading...did you catch that was? ;)

A couple months ago Connor was definitely recognizing words, he knew the sounds that each letter makes, he understood sounding it out but every night when we would read it was a frustrating and miserable task that resulted in him being in tears and me being grumpy. Fortunately, this period did not last long!

I found a great series of books called You Read to Me, I'll Read to You by Mary Ann Hoberman. I also started using Dolch site word flashcards and this combination was MONEY! Connor was looking forward to reading as he was recognizing more of the words and because of the rhyming nature of the book he was able to use the first letter or two to determine what the next word was to be.

We stuck with You Read to Me, I'll Read to You for 1.5-2 weeks and then started back on some of his First Reader books and the frustration was completely gone...so were the tears! In September we set a reading goal of 10 minutes a day for 5 days a week...10 minutes of him reading, not me reading to him. Each day he completes his reading he marks it on a calendar and at the end of the month if he completes his reading goal then he gets a certificate from Pizza Hut through their Book it! reading program.

I was able to fill out his first certificate on Friday and Connor had a special trip with his Mamaw & Papaw to have pizza on Saturday. He's tearing through books and really looks forward to reading, now...we never have to struggle through 10 minutes, I'm usually cutting him off at 20 minutes because we have to move on to another project. I am so proud of him!!!