We read Stuart Little and Charlotte's web outloud last year and she enjoyed them... I had forgotten about the Hundred Dresses, though. She'll like that I think! These look fabulous! We have a kindle :) Milly molly mandy was the first book she read (after Mercy Watson) because she loved it so much when I read it to her :)

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! She loved Frog and Toad, Mercy Watson, Fancy Nancy, Ivy and Bean, and Amelia Bedelia, but those are all a 1st/2nd grade level. She still reads those on occasion, but she needs more of a challenge. I just bought Betsy-Tacy, so I'm hoping that works out! I think we'll also try a few American Girl (I'd forgotten about those) and Ramona... Geronimo Stilton didn't scare her, but it didn't interest her, either. I might try to convince her to give that series another try, though.

Very good point.

She liked Princess in Black... we've read Beatrix Potter and Winnie the Pooh aloud as a family but it's been while, so maybe I'll have her try those. I'll look at the others, too. Thanks for the ideas!

Any recommendations for a first grader who reads at a 3rd grade level but is easily scared? She really throws herself into a story.... She's tried Boxcar Children and Magic Tree House, but she says they scare her too much. She did like the Thornton Burgess' Adventures of.... (reddy fox, sammy jay, etc) series.

Shoestring eats: pastries and coffee/tea in the morning, baguette and cheese for lunch, split an entree for dinner (they usually come with salad, tax included). Also, farmers markets are everywhere in the summer. Can't really help on places to stay, but there should be plenty of hostels you could look into...

We lived in Chambery, France, in view of the Alps, for a year. We visited many of the French/Swiss towns in the area (Grenoble, Aix-les-bains, Annecy, Geneva) and knew many people who visited the Italian side as well (we just drove through on our way to Tuscany...). We also saw Paris and Lyon. Of all the places we saw, Annecy was #1 or #2 (tuscany is very hard to beat...). It is gorgeous. They call it "Little Venice of France" because there are a few canals flowing through the city. It borders a lake with views of mountains in the background. Nearby, my husband hiked "la belle etoile" which is gorgeous. Many of our friends also highly recommended Lucerne, Switzerland, but we never made it there. This might be helpful: http://theculturetrip.com/europe/switzerland/articles/the-10-most-beautiful-towns-in-the-alps/ Have fun planning!

Thank you SO much! Nonsense words were on the schedule for tomorrow. I hadn't thought of vision problems since he already wears glasses... thanks, again for the links.

14 wrong on phonetic, 5 on holistic

Hi. My oldest just turned 8 in May and will be starting third grade this fall. He is well above grade level in math and has excellent handwriting. Reading comprehension has always been a struggle, especially when I read to him. He also has struggled some with reading to himself and answering questions. He loved the Magic Tree House series but has not really latched onto anything since then, complaining that it's too hard and wanting more pictures. I gave him the Miller Word Identification Assessment (http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/mwia.pdf) and he made 14 total errors between the 2 levels (of the phonetic portion). We went back to correct the errors and after spelling out the word, he corrected all of the errors. He read the phonetic and holistic portions at the same speed (there were a few seconds difference... he read the phonetic section a little bit faster, actually). As I was reading to interpret the results, it says, "The spell-and-re-try steps, note that where the student correctly calls certain words only after his attention is directed to their spelling, this indicates the existence of TWO knowledge systems relevant to identification of words. The two knowledge systems are mutually exclusive, and the student cannot deny either one by conscious effort. This is a condition known to psychologist as “cognitive dissonances,†which has been known to lead to emotional disturbance and trauma." I am sort of freaking out after reading that paragraph. He has always tended to make small mistakes when reading aloud to me. Mixing up "wet" and "went", "of" and "for", "robe" instead of "rob." I tell him to slow down, sound it out, and he does fine. I am concerned, though, because I cannot always be there to point at a word and ask him to re-read it. If he's mixing up little words, that could really impede comprehension. As far as read-aloud time goes, I usually read to him and his sister who is two years younger at the same time. She can answer all of my questions with ease (to be fair, I definitely think she's advanced for her age in this) but he cannot. I have to tell my daughter that this question is not for her so that she doesn't just answer them all. When I ask him to narrate, he usually gives me a detail or two but can't tell me the main themes of what happened. We have done WWE 2 and FLL 2 but the lessons seemed to take forever and I had to talk him through much of the vocab. It was super frustrating for both of us. It is very easy for him to zone out or be distracted by any little noise or sight. Any suggestions for what to do to help him out? I want him to love reading instead of dreading it. I also want to make sure he's truly understanding what he's reading. In case it's helpful, we used 100 EZ lessons and phonic pathways in K/1st, followed by Pathway Readers (he's still working on the third grade books in that series).