The fat cat sat on the mat....well, it tried to.

Bella and I have officially hit our first wall...figuratively speaking. Thus far our homeschooling journey has gone swimmingly, as far as academics are concerned. Then, came Book 1 of Phonics! ( Cue the music from "The Wizard of Oz" that plays whenever the wicked witch is near...)

We began our Explode the Code primers in August, and Bella loved them. We flew through books A and B, and finished up book C in November. We were doing at least four, and up to 10 pages per school day because she really enjoyed doing them. These books taught consonant sounds, reinforced writing the letter, matching to objects that began with that letter, etc.

So once we finished book C, I proudly produced Book 1 for her learning pleasure. Except it was not pleasurable for either of us! Book one jumps into three letter words without preamble. Hat, sat, cat, mat...you get the idea. Not particularly hard. But she is not getting it and she does not enjoy her workbooks anymore. We are pulling our hair out to complete one page. And I like my hair. I want to keep it. I do not want to be a bald homeschooling mother.

Anyway, I gave it one last try today with no better results so we are moving to plan B. I really have no plan B, but it sure sounds good to say it. No, since the material is not engaging her and is frustrating us both, I decided to just lay it aside for a while. One reason I chose ETC -besides the glowing reviews- was the economical price. I'm not out a lot of money and if we never touch it again I can sleep at night.

Today I ordered a copy of "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons", a book many moms in our homeschool co-op have used. Until it arrives, I'm just going to play some games and let her do some different activities.

I know she is only four, and we have plenty of time to learn reading. But I have to admit I'm so afraid I won't be able to teach her! I know in my rational mind that I can teach her this. I remember having this same fear about potty training, to be honest...and that turned out fine. Part of the problem is that reading came very, very naturally to me. My mom read a lot to us and to be homest I don't remember learning to read. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite aware that I didn't exit the womb with a copy Tolstoy. But it just....happened. I was the kid in first grade who the teacher had to keep saying, "slow down!" to when I read aloud. After my mom read "The Diary of Anne Frank" to my sister and I in middle school, I checked out every book on the holocaust from our local library. I'm pretty confident in saying I'm probably the only member of my graduating high school class who had read "Mein Kampf" -in English, of course. I read while I eat, I read in the car...I love to read.

So you can see why I'm a little anal about this. I really want Bella to love reading as much as I do. So I am going to relax a little bit about it, we are going to read aloud as much as possible, and we are going to formulate- and try- plan B.

Suggestions, comments, and constructive criticism always welcome!