reading and writing

[Leslie_JJKs_mom]

When do you know when your child is ready. Jessica loves to be read to and often asks what words say. She also loves to color and trace letters. She is only 4 so I have pleanty of time but how will I know when she is ready to learn this. The scary part is then thinking about how I will teach her. Jack came to homeschooling already knowing the basics so I am not sure how to start.
We are going to use 5 in a row but I have not gotten my books yet.

[tempus vernum]

We start off when they are interested with games and kind of check out their readiness. Then we move along until they show they aren't ready. For example, ds was interested, willing and ready to learn sounds. . . he said he wanted to learn to read last year so we worked through sounds. Then it was time to start blending and he couldn't do it. After a lot of frustration on both of our ends, we quit. Now he said he wants to again and we are working on it. So far, 2 days into it, he's really doing well. . . he seems more ready. BUt I just gauge their abilities as we go. . .stop and start as needed :)

It's very hard to know and we've had some struggles, some frustrations. . . some because he wants so badly to read.. . some because his confidence is gone. . . some because he has speech problems. . .

but mostly we've enjoyed the journey with activities and games to make it all enjoyable :)

[NovelMama]

Whenever AJ and I play with chalk, I write the alphabet, because I like writing letters. :giggle When she started asking me what I was doing, I told her and asked if she wanted to learn some. Usually she said no, but when she said yes, then she'd just copy me as we made letters on the sidewalk. It grew into her saying, "Let's make letters!" and we'd do it on the Doodle Pad, in her notebooks, with crayons, with chalk, with whatever. When she was bored I'd ask if she wanted to write words, and she started saying yes more often than no. Right now we're at the stage where she's starting to sound things out, so when she's looking for something to do I'll sometimes ask if she wants to "do words". If she says no, I don't push it. That's pretty much how I figure we'll approach the whole reading/writing thing--one step at a time, suggesting we give it a go, not pushing if she doesn't want to do it, not stressing if she does it once and then stops showing interest for weeks or months at a time. It'll happen eventually. :)