reading

Phonics. Memorization. Sounding out words. Sight reading.
Ah. The joys of learning to read. My Lynn is in kindergarten which means precisely what I've stated above. Our afternoons consist of a reading book for homework and coming up with creative ways to help emphasize the skills of reading (including just simpy reading to her). Last night, I sat down and cut out small cards to write out her sight words, in duplicate, to create a go-fish style game. We just played it this afternoon and it worked quite well, mostly... I have the utmost of respect for you homeschoolers out there. My hat goes off to you, my friends. I consider myself a very patient person but do not think I have what it takes (or I guess to be more selfishly honest, I am not willing to work at having what it takes) to homeschool. I am amazed at what kids can absorb in such a short amount of time, however. The leaps and bounds she has made this year alone have me so excited to watch what other skills she acquires before the end of the school year. I see what a balance there must be between the two approaches to learning to read, however. Some of our words in english (ok, a lot of our words) just can not be sounded out easily. This makes memorization the way to go for these words. Hence, our sight card game :) But, there's merit to learning letter sounds so that you can at least take a stab at reading a word. It makes me smile so big to hear her sound out the individual sounds of the letters and know enough to put them together to "wa-la" get the word. It's great! I love to read, myself, and enjoy our time together now when we're curled up on the couch sharing a book together, but I also look forward to the day of reading individually and getting lost in our own stories.