reading chart and preschool fun

I started a little preschool group with a few other moms (and their kids, of course) in my neighborhood, and so far it's been really great! It's pretty laid back, and we're focused more on building social skills, learning to follow routines, hands-on play and activities, and that sort of thing than a rigid curriculum. We are following my "letter a day" outline (which I'll post soon!) but that's more about having fun themes to follow, and starting to build letter recognition. We do lots of fun games, read stories, hands-on activities, and just let the kids play.

Anyway, more on that another day! But on the days we don't have our preschool group, I've been trying to work on reading with Jack. He knows all his letters, and he loves when I read to him, so we're trying to read lots and start to work on word recognition. We're a long way away from him actually reading, but the more we read, the better, for so many reasons!

So I made this chart for him to set some reading goals and start keeping track of how much reading we're doing.

Charts really work for motivating him. I think it's the visual reminder along with the immediate reward of putting a sticker on the chart, which reminds him of his long-term reward/goal. Whatever it is, they work for us - for potty training, behavior goals, etc. Now we just have to decide what the reward will be when we reach the goal!

I remember my mom reading to me and my sisters when we were little, which is what started my love affair with reading. She read to us all the time, and encouraged us to read as well - we even set reading goals! My love of reading is what to led to my (albeit brief) career as an English teacher before deciding to take a break to stay home with my boys. Can you blame me for wanting to turn my kids into little bookworms too?

I just re-read this post. It's rather rambling and random, but I guess that's just indicative of my life right now. Enjoy!