Proving that I don't totally stink as a mother

Today started with me coming up with a special slogan:

Homeschooling: Doing what I hate, for those who hate what I do.

It was just one of those mornings.

However, once I started to work with Jake the Great things improved. We've been going through Dolch sight word flash cards since phonics doesn't click with him that great, and I discovered awhile back that he had forgotten most of the sight words he should have known since kindergarten. I made up decks of cards, a different color for each word list (pre-primer, primer, and so on). We've been going through the pre-primers and primers for a week or two now, and today he got all the pre-primer words correct, which was very thrilling for all involved.

I got inspired to create a word wall.

I went into our hallway with the flash cards and some sticky tack (poster putty) and started sticking the words to the wall. I grouped them loosely according to parts of speech and useage. Now we can not only see the words more often and have more opportunities to learn the words, but we can also move them around to create sentences,

thus proving to Jake that he actually *can* read.

This is a great idea even for anyone with young children, even if you don't homeschool. Izzy Man goes to school and he is learning the same words that Jake is reviewing. I have had some word lists up around the house and have already discovered that Izzy knew many of them. I have 2 younger kiddos as well who will benefit from seeing these words more often.

Another resource we've recently discovered to help with reading is the PBS show Between the Lions. We've been borrowing them from Netflix and all of my younger kids love it. After one day of watching some episodes I saw a marked improvement in Jake's reading ability. The DVDs are also available at Barnes and Noble, and the BTL web site has plenty of reading games to play.

Homeschooling can really be tough. It's a good thing that there are those bright moments when you feel like you're making a difference and getting through to your kids.