This is a storybook I wrote about 7 years ago for our then unica hija, 4 year old Bethany. I wrote this book primarily to fill the need to have a set of non-illustrated story books to stimulate her imagination. I was intentional in teaching her to read phonetically; decoding the sounds of every letter; blending them together to form words.
It was totally the opposite during my time because I remember learning to read by memorization (like most of us parents did) with the help of picture books. I thought that bookstores these days have a plethora of picture books that use heavy illustrations from cover to cover so that kids have become overly stimulated visually, leaving no room for creating imagination.
When I wrote this collection of short stories, apart from my daughter, I had a lil boy in mind. I envisioned him sitting next to his big sister and I while we do school at our kitchen table. But that had been yrs ago, and that boy came into flesh a year after I wrote the book. I'd asked myself if this is how it feels when you're able to live your dream. I thought of God's faithfulness to us thru the years. These are tough times but He has provided for our every need. He had been gracious for giving us the opportunity to teach our kids ourselves and to be able to have that freedom to choose the materials to teach them.
I watched my son as he read his storybook phonetically. He was having a lil problem remembering which one is the "b" and which one is the "d." So, I had him do the left thumb up for the "b" and the right thumb up for the "d." Problem solved.
My girl loves creating lapbook projects to showcase what she learned for the entire quarter. This would be her output project in Civics that we will compile in a portfolio to be submitted for evaluation and review to our homeschool provider in Manila.