My Own Personal Learn To Read Program for Little Moe!

Yes, I made it up.

My learn to read program came right out of my head...well not quite. Let's just say it was a conglomeration of methods and tools...OK - it was anything and everything I could get my hands on.

But bottom line is this - J. Anne did what a first grade teacher said couldn't be done and she did it in 9 days. (I am J. Anne by the way...Little Moe's mom!)

Let me start from the beginning...

Little Moe went to the cutest little Catholic school for kindergarten. He is an August kid so I told the teacher (since I was paying for this place)

"Look, I realize my kid really isn't ready for kindergarten but I want him here anyway. Please encourage him, but if he doesn't catch on we can repeat this level next year, so DON'T discourage him."

Wow - what a cool teacher he had. She did exactly as I asked...he had a great time that year in kinder and I wish I could have afforded to keep sending him, but I was in college trying to finish my bachelors back then and we had no money at all for school because his father stopped paying for half of it.

So Suzy Q had started homeschool that same year, she did her thing at home and he did his thing at St. Joe's. The next year I found a charter school nearby that was based on the Classical Education method. Having done a little bit of research this method appealed to me so I signed up both kids and they were fine to go back.

Oh man, what a DISASTER. Suzy Q was fine in her 8th grade class, but Little Moe wasn't cut out for that kind of hard handed disciplined approach. He didn't go there for kinder like the rest of the kids so he didn't understand their learn to read method.

The teacher flat out told me that there was no way he would learn to read that year and I should count on him repeating first grade.

Ummm...that was before the first report card came out....I was a little miffed at her lack of interest in my child's abilities.

So they were pulled and both of them then returned home for school.

I'm getting to the point...hang in there...

I started to research the learn to read "method" they were using at the school and hell, I seriously had no idea what they were talking about.

I thought to myself, "Self, surely learning to read cannot be this hard!"

So I bought some sight word flash cards and I printed out all that Starfall stuff and we started working on things.

I also bought a Dick and Jane book and I tell ya, it took me all of 9 stinking days to get that kid reading a book. Sure it was a Dick and Jane at the most basic level, but to HIM it was a BOOK!

Pretty soon I had run out of things to do - I mean that was what? Two weeks into our "year".

So I bought My Father's World Kindergarten. We had a blast doing that but come February - we were pretty much good on that too.

So I bought Pathway Readers first grade. Did you hear that...first grade!

So what happened was - we went backwards and then we moved forward.

That is WHY you homeschool people - to make an individualized plan for learning and to pace your curriculum for your kid.

We finished the WHOLE first grade curriculum by June. :)

And that was how I turned my Little Moe from a sad little post-kinder kid who thought he couldn't do anything to an overachieving little first grader

My Little Moe was, and is, an excellent reader...no thanks at all to that nasty first grade teacher.

Take what you want from my personal experience - I just want to put it out there for people to think about, especially when they start thinking this stuff is never gonna work.

So my personal learn to read program was:

1. Sight Words Flash Cards
2. Dick and Jane
3. Starfall
4. My Father's World
5. Pathway Readers

And we used Pathways from then on...

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