Thursday's Lessons-39 (h), 40, 41 (k)

Nothing super exciting to report other than Monkey keeps getting faster.  He doesn't exactly comprehend what he just read so when I ask him questions we go back to the "story" and re-read parts of it.  He likes the quotation marks and has learned that it's what someone says.  We just keep chugging along!

Tuesday's Reading Lessons: 35 (sh), 36, 37 (a as in ate), 38

So hubby slept in yesterday.  I mean SLEPT IN.  I got up with Baby K at 5:20 and fell back asleep upstairs (on the couch) by 6:20.  Hubby is supposed to get up by 6:30 at the latest so he can throw clothes on and go to his first job.  I woke up at 9 and had a horrible feeling hubby hadn't left yet.  I ran to look at the shoes by the front door and sure enough, they were there.  I took the baby downstairs and we got him up.  He decided to call in because he really hasn't been feeling great with the lack of sleep!  He came with us to Baby K's doctor's appointment.  It was his 4 month checkup.  We were there at 10:45-the appointment was at 11.  We went early to get cream on his legs to help numb them for the shots.  We weren't seen until after 12!  Hubby had to leave at 11:30 so he could get to his other job so he had a chance of being home at night.  Baby K weighed in at a whopping 15 lb 12 oz, just a few ounces shy of doubling his birth weight but more than doubling his lowest (8 lbs was his birth weight and 7 was his low).  He is doing great!

After the appointment we went to pick up some books from a Freecycler, got lunch, went to Home Depot to get a bucket and came back home to eat lunch.  Then Monkey went for a nap.  I kept thinking-we need to do reading lessons, yesterday was crazy so we need to just sit down and do it!  The thought didn't enter back in my mind until 9:30 PM when we were going to take Monkey down for a bath.  SO it was late but he got through them quick.

I'm amazed how fast he decodes now.  With many words he doesn't even have to sound them out!  He did great and had no issue at all deciphering between the a with a line over it (like the a in ate) and the a he already knew like apple.  It's amazing to see how these little people can pick things up so quick!

Week of May 9-13 links

This week was a little rough trying to get stuff packed, our 5 year anniversary, etc.

Monkey is learning how to read.  For more information on what we're using see this post.   Monkey just turned 3 a couple weeks ago.  He is bright and loves books.  His little brother, Baby K, is 3 months.  Feel free to browse the blog for information on what's going on with him (cloth diaper posts :) ).

Here are the quick links to our week:
Tuesday
More for Tuesday
Thursday
Friday

Friday's lessons-32, 33 (g), 34, attempt at 35

Monkey breezed through 32-34 again but started getting antsy at 35 and couldn't make the "sh" sound properly.  After I asked him to say "fish" I realized that he was pronouncing it the way he could.  We stopped though because it was bedtime and he wanted to spend a little time with daddy who came home early last night.

Monkey is getting really quick at sounding things out-sometimes so quick that he'll guess a word rather than actually sound it out.  I have to remind him at times to sound it out and it will take a minute of going back and forth with it but he'll eventually break it down and figure it out.  His most difficult word so far has been "little" mainly because the "L" sound is so hard for him.  He's getting it but that's been a word he's had to stop on a bunch.

Thursday's lessons-28, 29 (L), 30, 31 (w)

Monkey is breezing through and wanted to do 4 lessons again.  We skipped Wednesday because it just got too hectic.  I don't remember what all we were doing but I'm in the middle of packing stuff so we can move it out today (Saturday) in to our storage and list our house.  More to come on that whole thing!  He had a hard time with L (really l but I didn't want it to look like an uppercase i when I typed that).  He can't quite make that sound yet.  We found out yesterday (Friday) he can't make the full "sh" sound either.  His annunciation of most words is impressive for a 3 year old-these seem to be the only sounds he has a hard time with.  He can say "lion" properly if we work with him and say "listen (pause) lll-ion."  He has a hard time if L is somewhere else in the word though.  R was kind of difficult too but he gets it most of the time.

More for Tuesday! Lessons 26 and 27-u

Monkey begged for 2 more lessons before bed.  Crazy kid did SIX Tuesday!  He already knew the letters though so it was really just reading them and practicing anyways.  He learned "u" as in "fun".  Wonder how many lessons he'll want today...

Week of May 2-6 links

Monkey is learning how to read.  For more information on what we're using see this post.   Monkey just turned 3 a couple weeks ago.  He is bright and loves books.  His little brother, Baby K, is 3 months.  Feel free to browse the blog for information on what's going on with him (cloth diaper posts :) ).

Here are the quick links to our week.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
 

Lessons 22, 23 (n), 24, and 25 (f)

Well Friday was crazy as usual and Monday hubby took off for our 5th anniversary (tomorrow) so we didn't do reading "blessons".  We made up for it today in about 10 minutes reading words, stories, and introducing the new letters.  Monkey is getting super quick at decoding compared to where he was even a week ago!  We're planning on doing some more activities later (or reading).  He was just happy to read in the book and already knew what our new letters said.

Lesson 20 and 21-introducing o (like "mom")

We breezed through lessons again today while the A/C man came to work on our A/C that broke last August (in the dead of summer when it kept hitting 95 and above while pregnant-NOT FUN).  Yay-it was under $300!!!  We were worried the actual compressor was shot since it's from 93 apparently but nope-it works beautifully!  It needed a tune-up, to be cleaned, to have the coils straightened out, and a couple other things, and some freon and yay all better!!!  I'm still going to be opening our door and windows as long as possible and in the evenings when I can to save on electricity though!


Monkey read me "Mat"-Bob Book 1 and "See Mat" ("I Am Sam" book 6).  He breezed through the two lessons and I almost moved on but I thought we should stick to one new sound a day (he was wanting more though-I don't want to give him TOO much).  I also got in a discussion with the A/C man about reading and he has a 4 year old that they wanted to start in early Kindergarten so they spent a fortune on a preschool and haven't seen ANY results.  She can't even write her name and they promised she'd come out like she'd already finished Kindergarten.  I told him about my 2 things that are MUSTS for teaching reading:

LeapFrog: Letter Factory

and

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

He was very interested and very appreciative-it's exactly what he's been searching for for months.  Hopefully it works out for him!

He also helped me!  I ran out of checks and we aren't reordering more because we're moving in a couple months and there's no point of having a bad address on them.  He took my debit card but with a super cool device called a square.  It's free and the app is free.  It doesn't have monthly fees or any sign up or any transaction restrictions, etc, etc.  It does a flat 2.75% on all transactions that you swipe a card and a little more if you enter it manually.  MUCH better than Paypal.  Here's some info on it: https://squareup.com/  They send it to you in the mail (for free).  I just signed up today so I'll update later.  I don't expect to use it a ton as I don't take a lot of local payments but I thought it would be a nice plus!  I have an iPod touch so I would obviously have to take it somewhere with wifi but that's usually not a problem.  (For those of you new to the blog I have a Hyena Cart and sometimes Etsy business-I make cloth diapers and hand knit goodies and am a licensed knitter of some really cute rompers and overalls).  Just thought I'd share-I've looked in to stuff in the past but this is an awesome awesome option.

Monkey also colored today :)

Yup I gots me a lefty!  I don't know HOW to fix the way he holds a crayon.  I have some websites and some suggestions from some local homeschooling mamas.  I'm not super worried about it yet as he's only 3 but I'll certainly encourage him to keep going left handed unlike my teacher from Kindergarten (I would switch back and forth)!

Lessons 17, 18, and 19-introducing c

17 and 18 were all review but taught the word "the".  Lesson 19 taught the "c" as in "cat".  We breezed through these lessons really quick yesterday (Wednesday) and reviewed the "I Am Sam" books 1, 6, 7. 

Monkey woke up sick yesterday.  He's battled reflux since he was a newborn.  He's like I was as a child and battles heartburn and pukes REALLY easily at random times.  After he got sick on me twice (once in his bed and while we were putting his sheets in the wash) he was better and we went on with the day.  I feel bad for the poor kid and hope he doesn't have to go through it forever!

Lesson 15 and 16-introducing "th"

Yesterday, we went to Target to spend Monkey's birthday money.  I nudged him towards 2 things I knew he'd like.  First, Bananagrams.  Second, some water guns (they said 4+ on them but I think they'll be easy enough for him to use).  We opened the Bananagrams today.  We obviously won't play the game as written for a while but we did a few fun activities.  First, we spelled Monkey's name and Baby K's name.  Since I don't want to share their real names in a public forum I also spelled out Monkey and Baby K so I could share a picture :).

He helped me spell them out as I sounded the words out.  He knows how to spell his name so he just told me what to do.

The next game we played I would say a sound of a letter and he'd find the tiles.  This got a little frustrating for him a couple of times so I'd grab a group of tiles for him and tell him to pick the letter sound out of a smaller group.  Here's a picture of him searching

Showing off all of his sounds we've covered up to this point (before our new lessons today)

 

I finally talked him in to getting dressed (it's a battle I choose not to pick with him and I let him stay in his pjs until he'll agree to changing).  Before his nap time we did our reading lesson.  He started out by reading "Meet Mit" (book 7) again.  This time he read it much better.

After he read me the book we did lesson 15 and 16 which both included more words for reading and a "story" (sentence with a picture following).  Lesson 16 introduced the "th" sound.  He had a hard time at first differentiating between the "f" sound and the "th" sound.  Lesson 15 introduced the word "is" which is a funky word.  After he got done we read the first Bob Book again, "Mat".  I'm so proud of my little reader!

Week of April 24-30 quick links and link up

Monkey is learning how to read.  For more information on what we're using see this post.   Monkey just turned 3 a couple weeks ago.  He is bright and loves books.  His little brother, Baby K, is 3 months.  Feel free to browse the blog for information on what's going on with him (cloth diaper posts :) ).

Here are the quick links to our week.

Lesson 4 and 5
Lesson 6 and 7
Lesson 8 and 9
Lesson 10, 11, 12

Lesson 13 and 14-introducing i (as in it)

For information on what we use for teaching reading see this post first.

We went to the library this morning and learned about the letter G.  Monkey sounded out a few words in books before story time started.  I'm so proud of how well he's doing!  Before his bedtime we did his reading "blesson" (as he says).  Lesson 13 is a review but it has the first reading and after they read the 3 word sentence there's a picture that you discuss.  He thought that was pretty cool.  Lesson 14 introduces "i" and has another story with a picture.  Once he sounded it out and got it he had a big smile on his face-"see me read" was the sentence.

After the "blesson" we read book 7-"Meet Mit".  He had a hard time with the word "meet".  I think he was tired.  We'll try reading it again in the morning and he should pick it up a bit quicker.  The first time through is a lot of sounding it out.  I did have to remind him a few times not to guess what he was reading.  He's too anxious to do it he just tries to guess.

Lesson 10, 11, and 12 (Thursday 4/28)

Lessons 10 and 11 were review with just a couple new words to read. We also did lesson 12 and introduced d. We read books 1-6 again and read the first Bob Book-Mat. Nothing too spectacular to note-just chugging along. We didn't have time on Friday for the next lesson but we reviewed our books again.

Lesson 6 and 7-introducing "t"

For information on what we use for teaching reading see this post first.

Monkey begged from the beginning of the day to get more books out.  We read books 1-4.  He later sat on the couch with his books and read them all word perfect by himself with a big grin on his face.  I can tell he really likes reading and loves to learn.

We did Lesson 6-just reviewing the letters for about 1.5 minutes and moved on to lesson 7.  He was anxious to move on after learning his new sound-"t" (not "tuh" or "tah"-say the word "start" and that's the sound you want to teach).  We skipped to Task 8 and read the words.  He was able to learn to sound them out with just a little help from me.  We then moved on to reading "I Am Sam" book 5- "Mat" with new word "Mat" (and there's also the word "rat" in there-when we got to it he did the "r" sound by himself and kind of paused to see if he was right-with encouragement and a little help he sounded out the word "rat").  He had a bit of an issue with this book and book 4 because there are 2-3 lines of writing on the page and he wasn't sure where to start.  I had to help him quite a bit on each page but I know after a couple of days it will click with him and he won't have an issue with it.  I helped him move his finger along the words (he's been moving his finger on the single lines all along but didn't know what to do with multiple lines).

Lesson 4 and 5 4/25-introducing "e" as in "see"

For information on what we use for teaching reading see this post first. 

We spent the weekend reviewing our first 3 books in the "I Am Sam" series.  Monkey was excited to show his daddy and grandparents what he could do.  He also started picking out words on signs and other things to read.  We quickly reviewed through lesson 4-just reviewing the letters he had already learned.  He was a little rusty on "a" but after a quick reminder he did great.

We tried to make it through most of lesson 5 but he got bored again so we just reviewed the sounds a bunch of times (and introduced "e" as in "see").  He was very anxious to review his books and read a new one.  We reviewed the first 3 again and then started "See Me" with new word "me".  After a couple reads he did it almost perfect (1 or 2 mistakes that he quickly corrected).

Lesson 3 4/22-introducing a (as in apple)

For information on what we use for teaching reading see this post first.

We did lesson 3.  Monkey picked it up quick and got really board with all of the things besides just moving on the arrows.  He liked reading the words (it introduces the word "am" in Task 6).  We've decided we can't really go through the whole lesson because he doesn't have the attention span for it and gets bored reviewing over and over.  We read the first two books in the "I Am Sam" series again.  We then introduced Book 3, "See Sam" which introduces a new word, "am".  Monkey struggled for a minute because he didn't see the difference between the word "Sam" and the word "am" at first and then I showed him how to break it up to sound it out (decode the word) and it clicked.  He hasn't had an issue since.

Lesson 2 4/21

Well we're beginning our day 2.  I'm writing this entry in 2 parts because Baby K is napping and Monkey is busily working on puzzles and "reading" books and wants to be alone for the moment.  We haven't done the second lesson yet but I wanted to mention that he picked up "I See Sam" (book 1 in the I See Sam series-see this post for more info on what I'm using to teach Monkey to read) and read it almost perfect (just a couple mistakes).  We then went downstairs so I could change Baby K's diaper and Monkey climbed in "Mommy and Daddy bed" and said "I will read the book." and continued to read it word perfect.  To make sure he wasn't just memorizing and reciting (as he likes to do with books) I pulled out book 2, "Sam", and he read it word perfect!  He was so excited that he could read it.  He doesn't understand the punctuation but I don't plan to stress that for a little bit.  He's very proud of himself and continued by begging to watch Letter Factory and wanted to continue to read, but on his own.  He's currently down laying in his bed looking at books (his favorite activity lately).

We later did lesson 2 but he was VERY bored.  It was all review.  I've gone through the first several lessons and made notes of where to combine lessons.  We will do lesson 3 tomorrow.

Taking a Break from Letter of the Week curriculum

Well Monkey has begged for it and pleaded (and has shown ALL the readiness signs for about a month and most for months) so we're starting to teach him how to read.  We're taking a break completely from themes and letter of the week because I want to focus ALL of our time and attention to teaching him how to read until we start his preschool curriculum in the fall.  So what are we using?

A bunch of introductory readers (I'll post each that we read along our journey)
I See Sam readers (this is an excellent link.  My parents got our children these books for Christmas.  They're the books that *I* learned to read with back in Kindergarten just under 20 years ago.  A print shop printed them for them and laminated the covers all nice-I have quite a soft spot for these books and the use of phonics.)
And our main book: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons












Along with: Teach Your Child to Read in Just Ten Minutes a Day












and Alphabet Bob Books, Prereading Skills Bob Books, Kindergarten Sight Words, First Grade Sight Words, and the rest of the Bob Books.


So today we completed lesson 1 of 100 Easy Lessons.  Monkey can now recognize "mmmm" and "ssss" in words and helped me read one of his books and sounded out the m's and s's in words.  He then read most of "I See Sam" (book 1 of the I See Sam series).  I read it with him-he read the words at the same time as me.  100 Easy Lessons encourages to only use the book but Monkey really wants to be able to read HIS books so I want to incorporate appropriate readers while we use the book.  I'm VERY big on teaching phonics along with just a handful of sight words ("is", "an", "at", etc) so they can learn how to build on to those words they see all the time.

The first lesson has the child start writing.  I HAVE to go get some big lined paper this week so we don't have to use my not-so-nice lines (using a straight edge but I can't ever get them very parallel!).  He grabbed the pencil left handed (we've thought for a while he would be a lefty!).  I don't know how to correct his hold-he kinda holds it like most left handed children start out-grasping with his whole hand with his pinky down.  I had to help him trace and hold lightly otherwise he was all over the page.  I'm not so sure he's ready to write but the reading part came very easy for him and I really feel he's ready for it.  I think he'll have to have extra help for the writing though.

Monkey was quite proud of himself and wanted to read a bunch of books.  I read his Alphatales A, B, C, and D books and Bob Books AB and CD books.  He "helped" me "remember" the sounds of those letters.  I'm so happy that he's so excited.  I know him though and know he's like me and will get frustrated at some point when it gets tough.  We'll keep going though (probably take the rest of the day off or whatever) because I KNOW he can do it and I really feel like he's ready.  I knew we had to bite the bullet today after he got upset when he was "reading" his books alone in the hall by his room and he didn't know what they were all saying (though he can "read" all of Hand Hand Fingers Thumb by himself we've read it so many times)

Monkey's Favorite iPod (iPhone 4) apps

I just had Monkey "fetch" my iPod (I know that sounds horrible but he LOVES to get us things and isn't that why you have kids ;) ).  The crazy kid knows how to unlock it and find the camera even though I have it in a subcategory!  I just got an iPod touch (newer generation) about a week and a half ago and Monkey LOVES it (so does hubby!).  Hubby is going to get an iPad to use at grad school in the next couple of months.  We decided that we would do this so we could use Facetime to talk to each other.  I decided I'd do a post though with some of our favorite apps!  This post is all about Monkey's favs-look for the post on mine coming up next.  To find the app go to iTunes and go to the iTunes store.

MiniPiano (free)-Need I say more?
Finger Drums (free)-Be aware with this one that there are ADS so you will want to watch your kiddos with it.  Monkey loves music though so these ones are fun!
Lego Photo (free)-Take a picture or use one you've already taken (warning-you can't save the picture if you take it with the program after you've turned it in to Legos) and turn it in to a Lego mosaic.
Quizzing by Toddler Teasers ($1.99 and so worth it!)-this one is our very favorite.  You can quiz your kiddo on shapes, colors, numbers, and upper or lowercase letters (you can't do both at the same time so you have to pick one or the other in the menu) or turn off some of the functions and just quiz one thing (try the shape one for free to see if you like it but Monkey loves it).  It gives the kid at least 4 things and it says "Touch the ____" if they touch the wrong thing it says what they touched and then repeats "Touch the ____".  After they get so many pages done (you can set that) the app comes up with a page full of fun shapes and items and it says "Pick a sticker" and then after they touch one it goes to a scene and says "Put the sticker on the page."  This is Monkey's very favorite part.  He will play this game for forever if you let him.

We have a bunch of other ones on my iPod that we haven't got to try yet so I will add more as we use them.