• The Best Dog in the Whole World (Fiction, Level 6, Stage 2) by Susan Taylor Brown
• Baby’s Breakfast (Fiction, Level 6, Stage 2) by Margaret Mahy
• A World of Change (Non-fiction, Level 6, Stage 2) by Natalie Lunis and Nancy White

How is it that my youngest is a second grader? I really can’t say where the time goes, but I can say that although I may not be quite ready to accept this reality, my little guy is more than ready to be a champion second grader, and this makes me so happy. He flew through this week’s books, and he even smiled when he learned how to do the Independent Assessment Booklet. The only tears I saw this week were about not getting every single question right. I would say that makes for a fantastic start to second grade!

The activity I want to highlight this week is the comprehension after silent reading (Step 6 in the Read with Sarah process) for The Best Dog in the Whole World. This step was a struggle for Malachi at the end of first grade, so I was curious as to how it would go on the first day of school this week, and I am proud to say that he knew the answers! He read the book silently all alone and then when I asked him the comprehension questions, he not only answered them correctly, but he expounded on each one to tell me the entire story! I just love breakthroughs! The comprehension questions asked for this book were the following: What did Nathan and Nora want? Why? What did Mom say about this? What happened then? Who was Clyde? Who was Rusty? What did the woman do that made the children unhappy? What did she do that made them happy again? What was the new puppy’s name? Why?

I realize that we won’t have a breakthrough every week, and I’m okay with that. I am happy we had one this week though, and I can’t wait to see what we’ll learn the rest of the year! For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.