{"id":1340,"date":"2026-02-25T09:55:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/?p=1340"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:00:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:00:53","slug":"morning-reading-tom-the-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/?p=1340","title":{"rendered":"Morning Reading &#8211; Tom the dog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260225_2116083629365838970334051-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1339\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260225_2116083629365838970334051-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260225_2116083629365838970334051-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260225_2116083629365838970334051-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260225_2116083629365838970334051-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260225_2116083629365838970334051.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Reading Eggs Book<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Kiefer really tried hard this morning whilst reading Tom the dog from his Reading Eggs book collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He had to really concentrate because this particular book is very tricky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this specific level (Level 2, Book 53), the difficulty jumps significantly compared to the very early &#8220;Tom&#8221; stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Levels 1-20, books usually have 1-3 words per page (e.g., &#8220;Tom sat.&#8221;). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By&nbsp;<strong class=\"Yjhzub\">Book 53<\/strong>, the program expects a child to handle full sentences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means Kiefer has to track&nbsp;with his eyes from left to right without losing his place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He often requires I follow the words holding his finger (this also helps him stay engaged) but we will read the same book daily so he learns this skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We do often block all but the word he needs to concentrate on, so he can learn without getting overloaded with the rest of the sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier books focus on simple&nbsp;<strong class=\"Yjhzub\">CVC<\/strong>&nbsp;words (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant like&nbsp;<em class=\"eujQNb\">cat, dog, sit<\/em>). Book 53 introduces&nbsp;<strong class=\"Yjhzub\">blends<\/strong>, where two consonants appear together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Level 2 starts mixing phonics (words you can sound out) with&nbsp;<strong class=\"Yjhzub\">high-frequency sight words<\/strong>&nbsp;that don&#8217;t follow standard rules yet (e.g.,&nbsp;<em class=\"eujQNb\">the, said, was, to<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this map level, the stories actually have a plot. Instead of just &#8220;Tom is big,&#8221; Tom is now doing things in a sequence. This requires\u00a0<strong class=\"Yjhzub\">working memory<\/strong> &#8211; Kiefer has to work so hard to decode the words that he may not remember the first part of the sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>Mixing singular and plural in Book 53 is difficult because it changes how Kiefer has to process a word both visually and phonetically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He does remarkably well with these and corrects himself when I try to prompt him to check the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>He performed really well and pushed himself to concentrate on getting it right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I rewarded him with a hug and some free play on his tab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kiefer really tried hard this morning whilst reading Tom the dog from his Reading Eggs book collection. He had to really concentrate because this particular book is very tricky. At this specific level (Level 2, Book 53), the difficulty jumps significantly compared to the very early &#8220;Tom&#8221; stories. In Levels 1-20, books usually have 1-3&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[25,29,26],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-keep-learning","tag-balance","tag-reading","tag-reading-eggs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kieferansonart.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}