Reading lessons and other things

Working so much on pronunciation with Phoebe has naturally led to phonics, so we've cracked open Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons again. So far we've done about 10 lessons and then started back at square one. And then we went through about 20 lessons and then started over again at lesson 10. And now we're just past lesson 20 for the second time, and it was perfect timing because the letter we added today was c and what sound does c make? 

/k/...which Phoebe just figured out how to produce! 

The poor thing was struggling so hard with the word "cat" today (she keeps saying "tac" instead). Typically she has substituted /t/ for /k/ so "cat" would be "tat." I suppose "tac" is a step in the right direction. We worked for a while on saying /k/ first and /t/ second, but it was a real challenge for her. 

At first she wasn't a huge fan of reading lessons but now she often asks me for lessons (even over the weekend when we don't "have to" do schoolwork). 

The other day she decided to pull out her reading lesson book so she could give one of her baby dolls (one of my baby dolls) a reading lesson. Here they are skipping way far ahead:

And here they are sounding things out together:

You can see she has one of her trusty puppies by her side (I think this one is named blueberry because it's technically a very deep navy blue, not black). Grandpa told us yesterday that Titus had to be put down at the vet after his appointment, so she'll be missing him the next time we visit Grandpa and Darla. 

They will both be going to Utah for Grandpa Frank's funeral, so it won't be for a little while.

I suppose I never quite wrote about that—Grandpa Frank passed away on Friday at around 1:00 in the morning, just 12 hours after his second big fall. He had fallen shortly before everyone went out to Utah to drop off Rachel (and had broken a few ribs and so forth). We were unable to get him in-home assistance or a residency anywhere and he didn't want anyone staying with him—though he did agree to use a walker (more). It seems he had a stroke when he fell earlier in the day on Friday, so by the time he regained consciousness (at the hospital) the left side of his body was paralyzed and he wasn't very lucid. We were all hoping for his sake that he would pass quickly—and he did!

We will miss him, for sure, but 96 is a good, long life and he was ready to move on. 

Andrew thought about going, but last-minute tickets are rather expensive, so he'll be staying home instead. Rachel will have to represent us at the funeral. 

We are happy to have our bigger kids home, though! Here's Miriam giving Alexander a piano lesson on Monday morning: