Reading

 Isn't she just a sight to behold..such a beauty :)

Elliana and I recently had an entire day to spend together just us girls.  She had a huge list of activities for our day.  In the middle of the day she came running up to me and said she knew one other thing we could do together- SCHOOL!  My boys have never been this enthusiastic about school.  Elliana LOVES doing her school work.  Her favorite subject is math :)

I really enjoy having Elliana be a big part of our school this year.  We have been working on reading and I thought I would share what we are up to and how we are tackling this subject.

We use Sonlight curriculum and it has been a great base for teaching my kids to read.  I also add in Explode the Code and Clues to Meaning.


 During During the school year Elliana has been working through Sonlight's "I Can Read It" book series.  She reads these stories with me sitting next to her (to offer help on the tough words or read the ones that are way beyond her ability).






Lately I have been typing up the stories and color coding the words.  The words in red are those that she can read on her own, the ones in black are the words that I read (until she starts to remember them on her own,- she lets me know when I am reading a word that she knows :)  I even color coded words with the th and sh sound. She can see that those letter combinations make a unique sound; that can't be sounded out phonetically.

 I also keep track of all the words that she can read easily.  When we have a spare minute between subjects or activities I hand her the index card set pictured below.  She can flip through the words and gain confidence in her reading and ability (and get extra practice!).

So that's what we're up to in Kindergarten reading!