Nothing exciting today. I went to my doctor's appt this morning and evidently I'm STILL pregnant.LOL Only seven more weeks to go. My doctor even said that he couldn't find anything to pick on me with, since I'm doing so well.lol

The kids are working really hard and getting their work completed by the right times. I'm so thankful that they are really trying. I do hope that they keep up the good work.

I did school with Evie yesterday and she is slowly showing improvement. Before Christmas break, she was having trouble with questions like...does apple start with A? I would say, A says aah and apple starts with the sound aah, so do they start with the same sound? I would say that she was guessing each and every time. She just didn't understand the question. Well, yesterday she could answer the question correctly most of the time even with her new letter "D". Whew! During our break, I had her working on this web-site... www.starfall.com and I really think it's what helped her to figure this step out. Once she's got the letter sounds figured out, we'll start in on blends.

I have these books from Eric's kindergarten years that we've used with each of the kids. I call the books the I See Sam books but really they were picked up by Reader Rabbit around when my first kids were little and they made a computer game out of them called The Interactive Reading Journey and they came with all 50 readers bound into 4 books with the game. It's an awesome resourse if you can still find it. After they get through those readers, I have 50 more readers from Primary Phonics that mesh really well with the first readers. I've found that once they've read all these, they can easily move into reading those little I Can Read books that you see at the library and at bookstores. We usually spend some time with those and then start adding in readers from Abeka and Bob Jones. All these books mesh really well and give a beginner reader a lot of experience and a lot of handholding. Sometime after they have read their first couple of beginning readers, I declare them "big kids" who are allowed to stay up an extra hour each night for "quiet reading". So far none of my kids have figured out that this is just my way of making sure that they are getting a lot of reading done AND that they are learning to enjoy reading.LOL I also institute a weekly trip to the bookstore once they've graduated into the I Can Read books where, as a treat, I allow them to pick out their own book. Not only does this give them MORE to read but it also reinforces that books are treats.LOL I have them keep all of these books in a basket by their bed and they are welcome to read them anytime.

I'm excited about Evie taking these first few steps. It seems like such a big kid thing to be able to do. I'm sure that she'll get a lot of pleasure out of reading as time goes on.

Blessings,

Lisa