The fundamentals

It is like pulling teeth getting Ian to want to learn to read.  I fear we are so far behind other kids his age and having only 1/2 day kindergarten last year didn't help the situation.  This Summer, I had big plans to work with him and at least get him reading level 1/ Kindergarten books.  Unfortunately the Summer is almost over and Ian is no where closer to being able to read the books on his own.  Every time I suggested to Ian to work on his reading, he resisted and I will admit I didn't force the issue.

I had to get creative and take matters in my own hand.  While driving the other day, I pulled out our Sight Word Flash Cards and started  holding them up to Ian to read to me.  He threw a mini-fit and told me that I needed to stop wanting him to be perfect.  "Huh?  I don't want you to be perfect, I just want you to try", I replied back. In one of my finer mommy moments, I said, "Fine, Ian. Don't work on learning how to read and then at the end of the year when you still can't, you will have to do 1st grade over again."   Of course, this got Ian crying even harder and now he was saying, "I WANT to go to 2nd grade!!!!!"  Whoa, baby.  Get a hold of yourself.  Let's do 1st grade first before worrying about 2nd grade. 

I guess my idle threat of Ian having to repeat a grade he hasn't even started yet worked.  Because as soon as we got in the car on our next outing, he pulled out the flash cards and gave me a handful to show him.  It was fabulous!!   We zoom through the words he knows well and spend a few extra minutes going over the words he needs help with.  I take those cards and put them in a separate pile.  Once we pull into our destination and into a parking spot, I take out the ones that caused Ian a little trouble and have him read them again. 

When we are back in the car, I take out the trouble pile yet again and re-review.  If they are still a problem, we put them back in the big stack of new cards to review.  I pull out a pile of new flashcards and start the process all over again.

I believe we are making progress!  We got through those sight word cards and I got the next level of flash cards, simple sentences using the sight words.  I am very excited that Ian hasn't resisted on wanting to do these and eagerly reads the cards as we drive to our next destination.  There may be hope yet for him to go to 2nd grade on the first try. :)