Squeezing Margaret In

On Monday I was able to leave Joseph napping at home where Chris was working while taking the other three to swim lessons.

Reading a "fluency page" in All About Reading

This freed me up to give Margaret (4) a reading lesson while we waited for her bigger siblings.

Reading a real story in All About Reading

In All About Reading 1, she graduated to starting to read her first Real Story in a Book. This is a milestone for a little one about which she was excited. I chuckled to see the same psychological or emotional hurdles that my first two readers had to overcome. Even though Margaret can read many words in a row from a practice page, but she clammed up at a Real Story . . . in a Real Book!

"Mama, there are so many pages!"

"That's okay, we're just on this one page."

"There are so many sentences!"

"But we're just looking at this one word."

So, as I've learned, we proceed slowly. Even though she can read more, I don't want to overwhelm an early reader, so we read just the one or two sentences in the story before she is daunted, then we pick it up again later.

Reading a real story in All About Reading

I suffer Homeschooling Mother Guilt that I can't give my third child the same attention as my first or even second received. Part of why #2 read so early is because she demanded lessons, which I had time to give her. Now #3 demands, begs, and wheedles for reading lessons also, but I only have time to sit with her maybe once or twice per week for ten minutes. In order for us to finish the older children's schoolwork, I am working with them intensely (even with their increased independence) from 9:00 to 11:30--which is my goal for stopping time. After that we're busy like clockwork with recess, lunch, afternoon outings (e.g., swim), tidy-up time, dinner cooking, dinner eating, reading hour, and bedtime. What am I supposed to cut out of our days?

So, my wishing-to-read-more Margaret waits for me not-so-patiently and I wonder how on earth I will, in just over a year, add a real Kindergartner into our mix.