Little known to many, is the cruelty that is phonics. Cruel enough, to bring a tear to this mom's eye... We are using Phonics Pathways this year with Amie our new K student, and as a review with Demi-Sky our second grader. We abandoned Abeka finally, and so had to back up and review with Demi-not really knowing exactly where he would be since they are two different programs..but I digress, I was telling you about my traumatic reading session; ahem-
My two babies lisp, and I love it. They are my babies, I refuse to have them grow up. Lisping can make for interesting phonics instruction, tho. Usually I would have to resort to asking Demi, "are you saying 'ran' or 'wan'?" and Demi would reply, "the first one, momma!" and all was right in my universe because there is nothing cuter than your lisping little one.
During a recent phonics lesson, Demi was having trouble with a 'L' word and was clearly struggling and was clearly not satisfied with his pronouncement. I told him to hold his tongue to the roof of his mouth and try again. He did, and pronounced a great 'L' sound. He was so excited that he called his sister Meg, to demonstrate how perfectly he could now say her real name. I sat there with my eyes filling up in dismay, and then sat there doubly stunned as Amie age 5-watching this lesson began to experiment and gleefully add in her now perfect L-words.
with one phonics session, my world shifted ever so much. sigh.