Don't you just love the smell and feel of new books? I do!! I love books anyway, but especially when they will accomplish a purpose with my middle child, T. I started teaching him phonics last school year with Abeka. It just moved too fast for him at that time. He wasn't ready for it. So, we dropped that and worked on Explode the Code books which worked very well. Then we went to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We are on lesson 78--yippee!! He has improved greatly with it but is still not reading fluently. I have seen things "clicking" for him in the last 2 weeks or so. We're going to finish the 100 lessons, but I ordered the first grade Abeka phonics program and we'll start on Monday. This is basically where we would have started this current school year if he could have kept up the year before. So we're a few months behind, but that's the beauty of homeschooling, right?   I looked through them and I think he'll do very well with it. He is ready for it now. We'll continue to work through the summer and then move to the next level when we finish this one.

If he was in public school, he'd probably be held back a whole school year--in every subject! This way he can go on to second grade in everything but phonics/reading. And he won't be left behind, wondering why "all the other kids" can read and he can't. I've seen it happen too many times and it seems "they" never learn to read; they just get passed onto the next grade and the next.

Okay, enough of my ramblings. Here is a picture of our new books. (I already have the manuals, answer keys, and readers from using it with Z.) So...I saved money too!