Reading!
Posted By pamelamyers on July 25, 2015
I have been working with Sam for what seems like forever on learning to read. I am not expecting miracles or anything, but she knows all her letter sounds and I think she can sound out words if she tries. Not only that, but in preschool last year, they gave them a short list of sight words to start learning. Sam knows some, but not all of the ones she was given. I wish she’d try a little harder, honestly. I hate getting frustrated with her, but I know she is so smart and capable of so much, that when I don’t see her trying her best, I, well…get frustrated.
At any rate, I have been doing all I can to get her to sound out words when we read together. Simple words. Three letter words. Nothing hard, nothing with complex letter blends. Nothing. She just doesn’t want to, I think. I really believe she can do it, she just doesn’t want to right now. Why I have no idea. She insists I read three books every night at bedtime, she is thrilled to death with new books, she loves the idea of reading, she just won’t do it. She “reads” me stories she is familiar with, although I know it is just that they are so familiar, and the pictures prompt her a long. But still. It is her version of reading and I do like it.
One of the last hopes I tried was buying a set of Bob Books. These are the easiest readers imaginable. Boring, but easy. Simple words, lots of similar sounds. We tried a book a few times and Sam just didn’t get it. Well….guess what? She finally did! Sam sounded out each and every word in the “Dot” book. She stumbled a few times, to be sure, but she did it! I was so proud of her. Here is the book, in its entirety:
Dot has a hat. Dot has a cat. The cat has a hat. Dot has a dog. Dog has a hat. Dog has a rag hat. Sad dog. Sad Dot. Sad cat. Dog has on a rag hat. The End. (FYI – Everyone is sad because Dog’s hat seems to have slightly fallen apart. He then wore it again thus problem solved).
Congratulations, Sam! You did it! You did it! I can’t believe you did it, but indeed you did! I hope there are multitudes of books in your future that we can share. I look forward to you reading to me one day.
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