Hannah's Been Busy

We have been enjoying are time away from the table the last month.  Even though we have not done much in the way of school (that was the plan), Hannah and Ethan have been enjoying themselves and I have enjoyed the break.  Hannah has been spending her time learning to read and I think she is doing quite well.  We are not doing anything beyond reading.  She already knew her letters and their sounds, so mostly it learning how to put the words together and learning sight words (naturally in the context of reading).



The first book Hannah tried was "Storybook Treasury Of Dick And Jane And Friends".  I bought this years ago because I loved the pictures.  Hannah had it in her room and I had totally forgotten about until she pulled it out and asked if I could help her read it.  I really like this (yes it is old school) and there are a couple of reasons.  First, it has real stories with beginning, middles, and ends.  The pictures are compelling.  It uses sight words primarily but does it gradually.  The down side to this book is that as Hannah learns and memorize the sight words she stops practicing her decoding skills.

The second collection we've tried is the "Bob Books Collection 1".  I have been looking for these at Costco for awhile and finally found them this past weekend.  The only reason I bought these is for decoding practice.  I don't like the pictures (Hannah does enjoy them), I do not like the stories (they are painfully dull).  Actually, there is no story just a collection of sentences on roughly the same topic.  But they are good for practice for sounding out words, which is why I bought them.  Hannah thinks these books are fun and I guess that really all that matters.

I love watching Hannah read.  It is so fun watching her connect to the stories she's reading.  I am super proud of her.