A Sweet Victory for Tobin

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about my decision to postpone reading lessons for Tobin since he wasn't picking up on them and was getting frustrated by them instead.  I haven't regretted that decision.

However, I have been eager for him to learn to read because I know how much enjoyment that brings to a child when the world of words opens up to him; and Tobin has been eager, too.  I can't remember off the top of my head at what point we started those lessons in earnest again (I could go look it up in my homeschool planner, but I'm choosing not to do that at this late hour!).  ;-)  But I'm happy to say that, during this year, Tobin's official first grade year, he is doing much, much better with the learning-to-read process.

We've been using the book How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, just like I did with Josiah and David; and Tobin had been sailing along fairly smoothly with that.  He hit a snag recently however because the lessons started using normal font for the words, not the special font that book uses as the child learns to read (for example, they physically connect the "s" and "h" if the "sh" sound is required, and they place a straight line over a long "a" sound, and so forth).  The stories continued to be fairly long in each lesson; and without those hints in the font, he was a little lost--and also a little frustrated.

It was time to change gears again--not to put that book away for such a long break this time, but to take a few days off and have Tobin practice his reading through other methods.  Giving him the opportunity to practice, in a different context, words he already knew made a significant difference since it turned him from a painfully-slog-through-hard-sentences kind of reader into a I-can-really-do-this one!

This afternoon, I pulled out the good ol' book Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw, knowing that Tobin didn't actually know all of the words in it yet (like "shove" and "driver") but guessing that, with a little prompting, he would be able to learn those few words and successfully read the whole book, since many of the words were already familiar to him.  

It was indeed a success.  :)

I had him read it once to me; and as we went through it, I helped him learn the unfamiliar words; and then a little while later, I had him read it to Jeff.  That time, he only needed a tiny bit of prompting on a couple of words.

When he got to the last page and finished saying "Jeep for sale - cheap," the most beautiful smile broke out on his face.  :)  I'm not sure who was prouder in that moment: Tobin or me!  :)

The next time I go to the store, I plan to get a little notebook for Tobin that we can use for his reading record; and I will be delighted to write that on April 26, 2015, he read his first official book!  And tomorrow night, Tobin will be eating his supper off our "Celebrate" plate.  :)

What a sweet, sweet victory this was for him!!  :)