Wordy Wednesdy 9/8/2010: Excited reader wants to read them all!

Welcome to my first Wordy Wednesday post!  As I mentioned last week, I'm going to chronicle the use of Stepping Stones Together's early reading system as I attempt to teach my 5 year old to read.  He started school this week, so the mantle of responsibility doesn't fall completely on my shoulders (and that's a good thing!)

Since we began the program about one week ago, we've gone through about 12 books.  The system is designed to do one book every two days; however, my eager reader wanted to do two books and he did have some sight word recognition, so I relented.  Really, we end up reading more than just the assigned book.  In fact, most of the time, we go back through several (or all!) of the books that we printed.

We like to walk through the book online using the book viewer.  That makes it fun for him and is more like a slide show than a reading a book would be.  One thing I don't like so far is that when I print out the books, I can't re-order the pages.  Pages 1 and 2 are on the same sheet, but if you wanted to fold the papers like a book, you waste paper.  I've been gluing the pages together.  One suggestion that I would make would be to offer the pdf in a format that is printer-paper friendly.  I am so glad I stocked up on cheap paper when Staples was having their reams for a penny and 50 cents this summer.

Little man has positively been begging to read all of the books.  He wanted me to download them all one time we read!  He's very excited about reading and enjoys the stories.  I feel like we've made some progress in that he does seem to be learning to read based on repetition.  I haven't been using the sight word printables as much, but I do think he needs that since he has memorized the books.  He is getting more of the words though if I point to them and ask him what they are.  I also like to cover the picture and ask him to read me the words.

We did the writing activity just once.  He didn't seem too interested when I offered it to him again.  I think he's happy to just read with me for now.  He fell in love with Dexter the Dinosaur, the first Stepping Stones Together book that we read and that is one of the books that we read the most.  Once, he acted out everything that Dexter did.  We always do the comprehension questions at the end and he typically does well on those.

Since school started this week, I plan to cut him back to the one-a-day, doing the same book twice, if that is what he wants and if that is what he needs.  As Kindergarten parents, we are supposed to read to our child nightly and go over sight words.  I don't want to overload his brain, so we'll find a way for us to fit Stepping Stones Together in our routine.

So far, both my husband and I are impressed.  Our son feels good about himself when he can read us the short stories.  He is so proud of himself, which makes learning to read a very enjoyable and fun experience.

Disclosure:  I won a subscription to Stepping Stones Together's website.  This is not a paid post, merely a parent's review in progress.  Please click on the Stepping Stones Together Label for other related posts.