What I didn’t expect was how difficult blending would be.  I’ve always followed her lead when it comes to reading, not pushing any skill until she’s ready. (She’s in pre-k this year and will start kindergarten when she’s 6.) We read together every day, and she wanted to read out loud, too. Asking me to read specific words and trying to read pages herself, which is why we started to practice blending. 

However, I soon learned I made a big mistake in teaching her how to read. I started with a list of all the main site words, not taking into consideration how difficult words like “are” “the” and “she” would be for a beginner.