It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's . . .

We have been going to the library faithfully, though I am not keeping up with my goal of posting once a week. We read faithfully each night and record one book on Isaac's reading log, but there are many nights that we are so tired when we are done that I cannot remember what we have read. When I asked Matt just now if there were any books that I should blog about, neither of us could think of one. Our brains are too tired.

Part of our nightly reading is comprised of phonics readers to help Isaac practice his sight words. Teaching a child to read, or helping him learn to read, is a frustrating process. How many times will he look at the word "the" before he will remember it? But we have noticed progress and Isaac feels an obvious sense of accomplishment when we work through the reader and he has read all of the words.

I have been amazed and pleased at Isaac's work ethic since he started kindergarten. Doing his homework has not been the daily battle that I feared it would be. He actually looks forward to doing it each afternoon. And, even though he is tired at night when we work on his reading, he pays attention and stays focused. School has been an adjustment, but so far he is enjoying it.

In addition to the phonics readers that we read each night, I am trying to work on reading some short chapter books. The teacher assistant in his class reads them Junie B. Jones books, but at home we are starting with Superman chapter books. Some nights Isaac is excited to read another chapter. Other nights, he prefers to stick with picture books. Reading the chapter books over multiple nights helps him develop his sense of story (beginning, middle and end) and memory by reviewing what has already happened in the book. They are short enough that we can get through one in just a few days. And they will be good practice for the longer books that I want to read with him later.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons and some of my favorite children's books are fall books. I will try to remember what they are when my brain is more awake and share them here in the next few weeks.