Reading with Robbie... Getting ready to begin...

Okay, so Robbie has been decoding for over a year and reading lots of easy readers. I was consistent with our "reading lessons" for quite some time, but things changed.

We moved to another state and our home situation was not ideal. I went through some depression and Robbie lost interest in most of what we had been doing during our "school time". I was fine with that. My personal issues were overshadowing my desire to plan, prep and follow through with those sorts of things, anyway. Besides, his behavior was less than encouraging, to say the least.

Well, our living situation has improved tremendously as have both of our attitudes and interest levels. I am still without most of my materials, but I've been making a plan.

My husband got me a Christmas present he knew I would enjoy... something educational for Robbie:



Yes, yes.. I know.. it IS Hooked on Phonics. I know it may seem silly, but I'm really liking the looks of this program. It goes against everything I posted about how I would use "pure phonics" to teach him (yep, I'm eating my words and using word families with some sight words), but I have learned so much about how Robbie learns over the past year... I really think this will be fun and useful for him.

We will still be using Phonics Pathways in our own way as well as doing a page or two here or there out of his Explode the Code books, but I am planning to use the Hooked on Phonics as my planning point for activities.

I fully expect him to breeze through the Kindergarten levels, but I wanted to make sure that he was truly ready before beginning the First Grade levels with him.

I will be keeping a list (going forward, none from the past) of things that he reads to me as well as things that I read to him. Simply learning to read is not the ultimate goal.... I wish to ignite the spark of a lifelong love-affair with the written word in my son.

Okay, I suppose I've rambled enough for today. Tune in tomorrow to see how our official Day 1 goes.