Reading with Rusty and Rosy

This past year, Elliott has done an online preschool through the state called UPSTART (Utah  Preparing Students Today for A Rewarding Tomorrow.) There are 2 raccoon, Rusty and Rosy that facilitate some of the games and activities so we just call the program Rusty and Rosy. (It's much easier for Elliott to remember than UPSTART.)Here is a link to the website:  http://www.waterfordupstart.org/about-upstart/ 

We committed last June for Elliott to use the program 15  minutes a day, 5 days a week. It started with songs and games to help Elliott learn letters, sounds and numbers. Now he has progressed to sounding out words and reading books and adding numbers. It has been interesting and fun for me to watch as Elliott learns. Brian and I decided not to send Elliott to a preschool and this program has been amazing for our family. I love that I get to watch and help as Elliott learns and I know that in a few months I will miss him as he starts Kindergarten. 

Elliott can now read books, however if he sees a sentence, he slumps and groans and says he can't read it. (I think the amount of words can be overwhelming.) But UPSTART is brilliant because it teaches new words and has activities to get ready to read and then each page has a record button so Elliott can record his voice reading and then immediately hear it played back to him. It also makes it so much fun! Here is a page Elliott recorded:

And here is Elliott recording a page and then listening to it.

Here is the full recording of Elliott reading a book!

Part 1:

Part 2:

The words for bear, dragon and monster are pictures since he hasn't learned those yet. Elliott also likes to ad lib a bit and since he has fun and still does the reading, I think it is fun too.

I am so proud of Elliott and so grateful that Karen tipped us off that this program was available, it has been perfect for our needs.