{7QT} Reading Trials With My Beginning Reader

Sunshine has been "reading" for a long time now (although, to be fair, I haven't been consistently practicing with her for that whole year and a half). She slowly sounds out phonetic words and can haltingly get through the Bob books and the Miss Rhonda's readers.   She has been taught about ch-, sh-, th- and wh- and that when two vowels are together the first one says its name, and magic e.  She knows what "oo" says and many puzzle words.  She's done worksheets and workbooks on these concepts. Since the age of 4 she has chosen hard books off the shelf, gotten herself a bookmark, and running her finger or bookmark along each line in the book, has "read" many, many books very slowly and faithfully, that she is not actually reading . . . just to be the same as Turtle and Rosebud.  She is dying to read!  She wants to be able to read a recipe so she can bake on her own, to get to learn typing, to read books in her bed at night like the bigger girls.

Here is how each reading session with her goes:

1. 
Sunshine: "ARGH! This is a hard word!  Is it a puzzle word?"
Me:  "No.  You know all those sounds. It isn't a hard one.  Start with the first letter."

2. 
"What does this letter say again?  Oh, oh yeah, I know!  Errrr. . . I think I know . . ."

3. 
Sunshine, starting to sound out a word she read in the previous sentence. "Tttt . . . iii . . ."
Me:  "Remember?  You know that word!  It is right here.  You just read it."
Sunshine:  "I don't remember."

4.  
Sunshine, whining:  "Sparky, stop humming! Everyone BE QUIET!  I can't read when you make any noise!"

5. 
 Sunshine, sees the word "house," that she read in the last sentence and guesses: "Home!"  Sees the word "of" and guesses "for" even though she just read "of" yesterday with no problem. Guesses again and again about other words.

6. 
*Slouch.* *Flop.*  *Eye Roll.*  *Sigh.*

7.  
Me, inside my head: I can't listen to another minute. Should I remind her another time?  What could I be doing while this is taking 30 minutes. . . . No, no, I know this is important.  What else can I do to make this easier?  I'm going to go crazy if she has to sound out "ran" one more time! When is it all just going to click?

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