Loving homeschooling!

Well our state's homeschool convention is coming up next month and it is all that is on my mind!  Last year was our first year to attend and it was amazing.  We are all signed up this year and I have went through the workshop lists and the vendor lists about a hundred times!  I love how this time helps us as a couple prepare for the future of our kids.  G man and Little miss don't attend with us because this is our time to review our goals for them, our homeschool vision, and revamp what isn't working!  In an effort to reign in all this excitement I have decided to start another 30 day challenge.  I really enjoy the 30 day challenges.  This one is 30 days to a better homeschool.  You can see the complete 30 day list here.  (NOTE this will probably not be done in 30 consecutive days since we school in a traditional 5 day week.)

Day 1: Say only positive, supportive things about your child's work.

G man has been working for almost 2 years now on sight words.  He started reading in December and is doing well.  (He is reading age appropriate books that mainly consist of sight words.)  My biggest frustration as of late is that he forgets words that he has been working on since day 1 and sometimes even the word he just sounded out one page back.  Or my biggest frustration he will sound out the word gut /g/, /u/, /t/ perfectly but then he will say "fan" or some other off the wall word!  I just want to scream!!!  But then I sit back and wonder... have I praised his efforts? (Please note I do get excited about his learning with him, this is just a pet peeve that works well with today's challenge.)

Today I made sure that Little miss was ready to listen to a story and made sure I was too.  We got out his BOB book and curled up to listen.  G man started off great and then he hit his first bump in the road... instead of "the" he read "ta-he" so I gently reminded him how to say it.  He was so proud of himself when he finished. Little miss and I stood and clapped for him.

Some of the supportive phrases I used:
     "I like how you took your time on that word you didn't know."
     "Wow!  You read that page great!"
     "I like how you used the picture to help you read the words."
     "You remembered the question mark and tried to change your voice.  I like that effort."

Reading time today was much less painful for me than most and even though I don't show G man my frustrations I also don't praise him enough.  He felt so much more confidant in his reading today.

                         

Both of these are the types of books G man likes to read.