Day 36: Peanut starts to write

I meant to write about our art lesson today, but then something unexpected happened. I have been trying to teach my Peanut how to read for over a year now. We already know that she doesn't learn the same way her brother does, hence not the same way I learn. So it is harder for me to switch gears towards her. We started out with "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lesson" and made it about one third through the book before giving up. It just didn't work for us.

Then we moved to Hooked On Phonics and it worked for a little while. Again, I didn't feel the success in the nearer future, so we gave up again. I actually started to become a little bit frustrated. Hooked on Phonics worked well for Coqui, so much that he went from a non-reader to chapter books in one summer. I felt either I am not doing it right, or we just hadn't found what SHE needed.

I am reading countless blogs and reviews about homeschool curricula. That's how I came across Explode The Code and we started with the primers and she loved it - I just wrote about that a few days ago here. Those books combined with the A Reason For Handwriting and every encouragement that I can come up with to get her to read have finally paid of, I hope. She has never done this before. Usually she gets her brother or me to spell things for her. But tonight, when her sister and her came up with the great plan to share a room, she made this sign. It reads: 'No go on the bed'. And yes, she spelled it all by herself!

I am praying that this was our breakthrough! She CAN read, but she doesn't want to. She CAN spell if I ask her, but again she doesn't feel like it. I always wondered if she thinks she won't be dependent anymore for me to read stories to her. Bed time is kind of special in our house, and I love to read to all of them. It's part of our routine including singing songs and cuddling. Good night everyone.