Learning to read..take 2!

Two years ago I started teaching Jackson to read.  The experience was traumatic to say the least! There was a lot of crying and yelling.  From both of us.  So when Ellie started showing signs of readiness I was a little nervous.  Ellie's personality is nothing like Jackson's.  I knew that it would be different.  I was just worried that I might make the same mistakes as before. 

We have taken this whole entire process very slow.  She has finally started to express frustration because she cannot read.  One of her good friends is an excellent reader.  This frustrates her.  I have been preparing her for reading since June.  That is when I formally started teaching her letters and sounds.  The reason why I waited is because I wanted to make sure she got it.  A lot of times letters and numbers are taught at a very early age and I don't think kids really get them.  I think they memorize but then don't know how to apply them.  This is one of the problems that Jackson had.  Anyway, I started with just teaching her letters and sounds.  We worked and worked on them until I felt she was ready for the next step.  Last week we took the plunge.  We have officially started SSR&W.

It is not as easy as she had thought.  We are learning to blend letters like "b-a". Today she was very frustrated.  She really just wanted to read a book.  So today was not as easy as she had hoped.  I on the other hand knew it would not be so I was able to remain calm when she got upset.  I know she will get it.  Jackson did and he was hard for me!