The greatest thrill...

... is to hear my boy read.

Reading was always the most intimidating of subjects whenever I had considered homeschooling. Up until then, I'd always assumed only trained teachers with fancy degrees could do it. And to be honest, I think a lot of people assume the same thing. Last week a lady in the grocery store asked why my son was not in school. After I told her we homeschooled, she asked, horrified, "But how will he learn to read?"

We have a set of the old Dick and Jane books, and they are Asher's favorite fun books to read himself. He sits for long periods of time reading them out loud, and then asks, "Please may I read just one more? Please?" I always love to hear that, especially when he's sitting in the same room as a 55" television set that's begging to be turned on.

I took this video of Asher reading from one of his Dick and Jane books this morning.

Word Fishing game

I haven't come up with a more clever title for this game (which is found in the book I'm using to teach Asher how to read), but I can definitely say it was a hit.

We're currently learning about the "ng" digraph, which can be a little tricky, so the book suggested making this simple fishing game to help. It was definitely worth the 15 minutes it took me to make it the night before.

All you need are notecards, paperclips, a magnet, string for fishing line, and some kind of fishing pole (a pencil, a drum stick, a ruler, whatever you have on hand!). I wrote the endings "ang", "ing", "ong", and "ung" on separate notecards. Then I cut 9 other notecards in half and wrote various letters and letter combinations on these. I clipped a paper clip onto each half-sized card.

For the first round I set the "ang" card down in front of Asher. All the appropriate letter cards (such as "s", "cl", "b", etc.) were spread out, face down across the carpet. These were the fish in the sea. Asher had to catch one of these fish (his makeshift fishing pole had a small magnet tied onto the bottom of the string), then place the letter card next to the digraph card and read the word to me. If he got it right, he kept the card. If not, the card got thrown back into the sea.

He LOVED this game. And I could see him getting more comfortable reading that strange "ng", which he struggled with when I first introduced it.

Fishing for a letter

Caught one!

Sounding it out

Pleased with himself for getting it right!

This was such a great idea, and it's totally adaptable to a number of lessons in different subjects - not just reading. I'm sure I'll use it again.

We have a reader!

Today I am ecstatic. Asher has started reading 2-letter words.

I'm not sure why, but I have been anxious about the task of teaching him to read. In fact, it's terrifying. Literacy is foundational to learning and thinking, and taking it into my own hands is extremely daunting. Doubts filled my mind about my own ability to teach my son this most important skill.

I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself, feeling like he needs to read earlier and better than kids in regular school. I know this is mostly because I often feel like I have to defend homeschooling; if he's not doing something other kids are doing, then the first attack will likely be on the fact that he is at home and not in "real" school.

And besides that, I just want him to succeed.

He's known his letters since he was barely 2 years old, and soon after learned the sounds each one made. Still, today was the first day we actually put the sounds together to make words.

When he sounded out "at", "ad", "am", and "an", I could have cried. I was so proud. I have never in my life felt such a thrill. And to be honest, it only re-emphasized how much I want to homeschool Asher. I can't imagine having missed this experience, or not being the one to teach it to him. It was incredible.

Tonight before bed when Asher was showing his daddy his new reading skills, I told him we would start reading 3-letter words tomorrow because he did so well today. I pulled out a book and told him he would be able to read the entire thing on his own after he learned how to sound out 3-letter words. He asked to see the book and commented on the picture of a cat on the front.

"Who's this?" he asked.

"Can you sound it out?" I asked, nervously (we hadn't yet gone over any 3-letter words).

And before my eyes, he carefully looked at each letter, CAT, sounded it out and said, nonchalantly, "It says 'cat'. Okay I'm ready for bed now."

And just like that, I realized that he "got" it. I have a reader. And I can't wait to keep going!