For picture books my 5 year old LOVES anything by Mo Willems. He is also into Pete the Cat and the Fly Guy books by Tedd Arnold. He has enjoyed books by Virginia Lee Burton as well. For read alouds: anything by E.B. White and also the Mouse & the Motorcycle books by Beverly Cleary. He told me his favorite books have mice as the main character. Currently we are reading The Little House series. I have to say I'm a bit surprised by how much he enjoys them, but we are on the 3rd one now.

I think Minivan mom gave excellent advice. My 5 year old is this way. Recently he learned to ride a bike, but he was so frustrated by not being perfect the first time. It happened to be at the same time his little brother was taking his first steps. It helped to be able to talk about how he wasn't very good at first but with practice got better. Every time my 5 year old got frustrated, I talked about how his brother was walking and getting a little better each day. 3 year olds are not as capable of relating to others, but if you have a younger child or know someone who does you may be able to relate the situations.

Thanks for the link. I really did not expect him to pick up reading so quickly, and hadn't really started thinking about long term goals yet. He definitely needs help figuring out syllables in longer words that he hasn't seen before. He'll surprise me on occasion though, yesterday he read "embroidery". I have not heard of REWARDS, I'm going to check it out now.

Thanks.

I've been lurking for weeks, but this is my first post. This is my first year homeschooling, my son is 5.5. My original plan was to spend this school year teaching him to read, but he has basically taught himself. Right now I estimate he is reading between a 3rd and 4th grade level. I feel like his comprehension is good, he is able to tell me about what he read, who the main characters are, etc. This week I began OPGTR with him, starting where I estimated he needed work, only to find he has a better grasp on phonics than I realized. I will continue the last few phonics lessons with him, but we will probably finish in the next week. So, what comes next? Spelling? Is he too young? I know some people continue phonics lessons, but he finds them really boring,and he seems to intuitively know the rules. I hadn't really planned to do an official spelling program, but I see that a lot of people find it reinforces phonics, which he will need when he begins reading more technical things. We already read a lot, at least an hour a day, and will continue to do that. He typically reads to me before rest time, then he reads another 15-20 minutes on his own before he plays. Today instead of playing, he read 2 Magic Treehouse books and a Flat Stanley book. I actually had to set a time for him to take a break from reading so he could play outside for a bit. If it helps, we are also working on handwriting and will begin math next week.