Cedar's learning to read!

Cedar is so different from Aspen in so many ways that sometimes I forget how much they are alike. Up until a few months ago, Cedar had no interest in learning to read. He didn't like to be told what sounds what letter made, and he was just fine forgetting half of the alphabet. Aspen on the other hand was reading books by this time in her life. I wasn't worried about Cedar. He is very mathematically inclined, he loves to count and figure out math problems, he is visually - spatially inclined, he can beat many adults at Blokus and can find geometric shapes in anything he looks at. A couple of months ago Jonathon commented that Cedar was ready to read and that we should start actually teaching him. It was the end of the school year and a very busy time so it got put off. But now that we have slowed down, we have started up EFS. (English Family School-more on that later!) I have little assignments for each of the kids to do, and I have started teaching Cedar from Alpha Phonics. (My favorite learning to read book!) He is so excited about it. He knows words from the -am, -at, ax, -an, and -as families. He has about 30 words he can read and is so cute when he sounds them out. he puts his hand over his mouth and sounds out the word, says it out loud, then seems so surprised that he recognizes it as an actual word. It is very funny to watch and as a mom and a teacher makes me feel like I'm doing something right. (The picture is of Aspen and Cedar -in the middle- at the primary summer activity.)