Reading has still not been working for ds and I. I started out following the the schedule for the curriculum we're using, which was around 3 chapters a day from hard books. It was taking hours and that didn't last long because it was torture for both of us and that's not how reading should be. Then I cut the reading in half and that shortened the time a lot, but it was still taking over an hour. When he did read fast, he was messing up the words and I had to keep correcting him, which only added to the time it took to get through it. He was concentrating so much on getting through it fast, that neither of us could enjoy the story. He said he hated every book and moaned and groaned about reading. With two other kids and other subjects to teach, this was still taking too much time and just continuing to frustrate us both.

So, I finally said I'm taking a whole different approach. I am going to stop focusing on how MUCH he reads and allot a half an hour a day for reading. That's all the time I can spend on that right now and that's about how long he can last before he starts getting frustrated. So, it's read whatever you can in a half hour. When that time is up, he stops reading. I started this on Monday and he took his time, we talked a little about what was going on in the story and I explained the meaning of some words to him. We focused more on what was happening, accuracy, learning punctuation, developing more fluid reading, etc. It was a very short reading, he didn't get very far in the book, but we both enjoyed what he did read, didn't feel frustrated, and afterwards he closed the book and said he likes the book. I still have to correct him a lot because he still has the mentality to try to get through it fast and guesses a lot of words, but hopefully I can reverse this.

So, speed will come with mastery, right? Once he gets more confident, he should pick up speed, right? I know he will eventually need to pick up speed, but I don't think it should feel like torture to us, like it has been. But I keep wondering, at what point is it dumbing it down? Am I just lowering my expectations too much or am I tailoring it to meet the needs of this particular kid? I hope I am doing right by him. I just know what we have been doing hasn't been working.

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

Sounds to me like you're doing the right thing, Lisa!

We don't use a packaged curriculum, so I just do what seems right on a given day. The other day, Little One was making a lot more mistakes than usual because she had worked hard on her lesson and her brain was tired (tho she was not complaing : ) We stopped mid-lesson and started again the next day.

Not only does speed come after mastery, not before, but if you have to choose one or the other - mastery is the only one worth choosing. If a kid never gets fast, but does it right - that's the important thing.

And, I don't think it's dumbing it down at all. It's just good teaching.

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http://stuffedveggies.blogspot.com/

Lisa, see, you are the best teacher for your little ones! You can see when something is not working, so you try something else. I am so glad you made a breakthough. Your ds is still very young. My oldest dd didnt start learning letter sounds until she was 7 1/2.

I used a very gentle approach with my youngest dd when she didnt want to read. When we finally got through letter sounds I had her start with these lessons (online McGuffy primer with pictures)
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin ... 00acy5488m

I had her read each lesson a few times each day for a week. By then she had mastered every word then we moved on to the next lesson. The lessons were progressive and she felt she had accomplished something.

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"...with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

Thank you! I am doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with dd and she is more than halfway through it and doing great, but she has her days where she's just having a bad day and won't read or she gets goofy and gets the giggles and nothing gets done, so I set it aside, too. With ds, it was an everyday struggle. It's still not something he enjoys, but this week has been the smoothest week so far. It's been a lot less stressful, so I think this is the right choice for him.

Last year, we followed the curriculum schedule and it was perfect for him. It went at just the right pace and difficulty level and he thrived on it. Then it jumped ahead by leaps and bounds this year, but ds has plateaued in his reading progression, so there's just no way we can follow that schedule. Maybe if he was a strong reader, who loved it, but he's not. It's difficult because the readers are too easy for him, even the hardest ones, but he's also struggling with the regular chapter books. So, I guess we just have to go at a slower pace. He made a remark today about how there's just so many words and they're all squished together, so I guess it will just take him awhile to get used to pages with lots of words on them. To give an idea of the books he's reading, this is the one he's reading right now:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Whipping-Boy- ... 0060521228

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Mom to Christian (13), Saphira (10), Xavier (5), and Adrian (2).

Lisa, have you tried some eye exercises? Look here:
http://www.homeschoolchristian.com/curr ... vision.php

After we got the eye exercises going, I used the Christian Liberty Nature Readers. They are very interesting for boys. :0)

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Let the kids lead. You were very wise to slow the pace. Perhaps some days you can be the only reader. I'd ask your kids what they want/need at this time. Everyone matures and is ready at different times.

progressive phonics works well for my son also reading eggs.