Teaching a Bird to Read

Have you ever watched a bird for any period of time? Ever notice how they don't hold still even for a moment? Something is always twitching, their heads are constantly looking this way, then that.

That is what it is like to teach a four-year-old boy to read. He is ready. He knows all his sounds and all of his letters, and makes up his own reading games and letter hunts. He wants to read and tries...but when the time comes to sit down and do a lesson (we're doing Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons)I feel as if I have a bird sitting beside me, and it is my job to get that bird to focus on the page of the book for more than one second at a time.

If the bird were a chicken, I think I would have wrung its neck and had it for dinner by now, but since it is a lovely bird, and something I cherish tremendously, I think I'll try to teach it to read.