The Grand Experiment

I'm trying an experiment with Gideon. He's been more and more interested in "reading" when we read books to him. He pretends he's reading the words on the cover and makes up stop so he can "read" them to us. He also knows all his letters and their sounds (usually). (Thanks to Leapfrog fridge factory and the Letter Factor DVD)

So I heard about this book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It has almost 500 reviews on Amazon and most of them are positive. I thought I'd give it a try.

I never really though I'd teach Gideon using phonics, but I can't see why it would hurt. Honestly, he's a boy and acts like a boy. He really likes rules and systems, so phonics will probably work for him.

Tonight we tried the first lesson. It went well, although there's a writing component and Gideon can't really even approach making letters. They vaguely look like the letters, but his motor skills just aren't there yet. But I figure just tracing the letter and trying help his motor memory.

Anyway, so this will be a neat experiment. I'm going to give it a try and see how he does! If it doesn't work, I'll back off and try again in 6 months or so.