Reading Grid

When I first started home schooling, someone suggested that I pick just a few goals for the year.  One of my goals for Catherine was "improve her reading."  I hate that goal because it is so vague and immeasurable.  But, it is an essential skill for a first grader and I did not really have the time, energy or experience to be more specific at that time. 

To encourage her to want to read books on her own and give her a visual record of her accomplishments, I made a big poster called "Catherine's Reading Grid."  In each square I wrote the name of a book (some are blank until I get more books from the library).

When Catherine reads a book, she can color in that square with a crayon.  Perhaps by the end of the year she will have colored the entire grid.  We'll see.

Sabrina loves to color some of the squares too:

Sabrina wants her own grid, but I can't decide what to put in her grid to show what she has accomplished.  I may wait until she starts to read and give her very beginner level books.