...is WAY more fun than I anticipated. I must admit that teaching him to read was a very daunting task when I first realized that if I chose to home school him for Pre-K and Kindergarten the task would fall to me. Reading, after all, is a basis for learning anything and everything! I knew I wanted him to be a great reader and not just a decent reader. I wanted to instill in his curious little brain an understanding of WHY words worked and not just and understanding of what words looked like. I knew I wanted him to learn to read phonetically and not by sight words. I totally believed that someone else should be teaching him this important thing. I agonized over my selection of curriculum, but finally landed on Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons 
when a close friend suggested it. I hated the weight of this major milestone sitting on my shoulders. I dreaded the day by day lessons and felt utterly under qualified to even be attempting this task. The "helps" the book offered didn't seem clear or helpful and I was constantly second guessing my ability to teach him to read {let me insert here that I needed a major attitude check during this time and the Lord was working on me and my lack of trusting Him to give me the understanding and the ability to do this task}. Then we got to lesson 6 and he read his first word - me. I was hooked. My baby, my four year old had actually phonetically sounded out and read his first word! He turned five in October and his desire to learn to read deepened during a break that we necessarily took from our reading lessons. He has been locating words in library books and can successfully read Bob Books
that are focused on the sounds he has learned. - currently those sounds include m, long e, s, short i, th, t, d, and short a. He is reading short sentences and today we will finish up lesson 16. I hope to get through 2 lessons a week from now through Christmas. His enthusiasm and excitement to learn to read keeps me going and I am very thankful that the Lord brought me to a breaking point and made me face my fears and repent of my lack of trust in His abilities! I can teach my child to read because "I can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives me strength." (Phil 4:13)
Today we had a busy day of YMCA classes. The boys attended "Mess Class" this morning (an art class where they use all the art supplies that you really would rather not do in your house) and then "Whale of a Tale" this afternoon (a story time). This afternoon I spent about 15 minutes working on reading with my kindergartner. He is doing awesome! We did lesson 13 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He flew through it, getting everything right the first time! He has slight difficulty pronouncing his "r" sound, but each day he is improving. Today we reviewed sounds "m, e, r, t, and s" and we added "d." We have been checking out Bob books from the library and he is reading many of them very well. He is also starting to recognize/read words like "me, see, read, seed, meet, and seat" in other books. We will spend this evening at the farm (we are members of a CSA) collecting our fresh produce and enjoying the beautiful weather. The kids love to help us collect and weigh our 1/2 share of produce. I love that part of my "educating" my kids is giving them opportunities outside of the home. I am so thankful for the YMCA and our CSA and the learning experiences they receive from these two places.
I am considering using Math U See: Primer as our math curriculum for the year. I'd love feedback if any of you have used it. Did you like it? Was the Primer a good entry-level math? I tried using the Bob Jones K-5 math last year with Asher, but it is specifically written for use in a classroom and was not an effective choice for home schooling. I am so glad we had a free copy of it since my husband was the illustrator - no money down the toilet on that choice.
We received Asher's Unit 1 Reading List for Faith Academy. From September - November we will be working our way through these books (all of them can be found at your local library or on Amazon:
by Jane Chisholm
by Janie-Sue Wertheim and Kathy Shapiro
by Mira Pollack Brichto
by Cathy Goldburg Fishman