She Thought It Would Be Easy

I recently found a free online chore chart for kids that uses a points system to reward the child with options to save, share, or spend those points in ways the parents set up. I set it up for each child with the various chores they were already doing around the house daily. (Check out www.MyJobChart.com!!!)

There was an option for earning extra points by doing extra jobs so I put "Read a book" as an option for my new reader. Once she saw that she could make some extra points, she chose a book she thought would be easy..."Go, Dog, Go!" by P.D. Eastman. Little did she know, I wasn't going to let her get away with reciting it from memory.

After the third page, I made her stop and put her finger under each word as she read it. It wasn't easy as she thought! Her recitation did not hold because she could not hear the rhythm anymore. Nor could she read the pictures.

By page 50 or so, she was tiring but she kept going. New words, hard words that didn't make sense phonetically (sp?), blends we had not yet learned but she kept going!

When she was finished (64 pages!), both her Daddy and I threw up our arms and shouted, "Hooray!!!"

...and she earned her extra points!

Making bird houses

Even though the nesting season is over, bird houses are always a good family project and a great addition to the yard.