Back to Business

Well, so much for updating my blog. It has been far too long. I won't go through the list of excuses other than to say that it has been very busy and unfortunately the blog got pushed to the back burner.
However, I'm not teaching any courses this summer quarter at the local university, so I'm back to business. This summer I'm going to focus on teaching my daughter (who is now 4-1/2) to start some beginning reading. The last year or so I have really focused on pre-reading skills, like listening for sounds in words, identifying the connection between sounds and letters, etc. I don't do any of these things through flashcards or 20 minute marathon sessions on phonics. All of it is through games that we play or activities that stem from a real purpose, ie. making a list of groceries that need to be bought that day and sounding out initial sounds. This summer will be no exception, except that I am going to *try* to see if she is up for trying some simple books with me.
I say that I'm going to try only because I'm not sure if she will be excited about it or not and I don't know how successful I will be. So the big goal is to get her motivated to read, and then try to make some baby steps towards reading by reading some very simple books that will be a piece of cake for her to read.
I will most likely make tons of mistakes and fall flat on my face frequently over the course of the summer, but I intend to document it and share. :) Wish me luck!