Not to diss a man on his birthday but....

Johanna is not a huge Dr. Suess fan. As a "preschooler" (Do homeschoolers use that classification? I don't know) she was actually terrified of many of his books.
The only story she loved was the ever popular, McElligot's pool
What? You never heard of it? I'm shocked ;)
Anyway I think she liked it b/c it had to do with fishing. She also did enjoy Green Eggs and Ham as toddler but really that was it.
Cat in the Hat made her shake with fear..that was just the cover. I can't say if we ever read it or not.
So as Johanna is learning to read the very fun Dr Suess books are not really her choice. Maybe later when her reading is stronger but they do not capture her the way they do for so many other children. Mostly they confuse her or scare her.
Up until today I was using a book called "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons but I had used up all my renewals so back to the library it went. It is on hold again but, until we get it ,I wanted something easy for Johanna to practice reading. Many of the easy readers are still just a little too hard throwing in words that are good for the story but not good for sounding out.
So I went with a very classic standby. Dick and Jane. These are the books that my mother used to learn how to read. I have heard they are quite out dated and dull compared to todays fun Dr. Suess easy readers.
All I knew was that Dick and Jane had a cat so Johanna would be happy.
Tonight she read 2 chapters entirely on her own.
Yes, the words are simple..yes the stories are repetitive but the illustrations are adorable. Johanna does not seem to mind the simplistic story and actually got quite a kick out of "Puff" as the baby and jumping from the stroller.
The nice thing about these stories is that she can feel that sense of accomplishemnt over the story.
Yes the stories are simple but so is childhood.