Reading is Fun!

One of the hardest things I think so far of being a parent isn't the newborn stage or even the terrible two's but teaching your child to read - IT IS SO HARD!!!
I had this brilliant idea that this summer Grace would practice her reading every day.  I think I got it off of Pinterest and thought, "now that's a great idea.  I'm sure it's really easy to do too since it's on Pinterest, no one ever fails doing something they saw off of this site!"  Yea, not so much.  Grace is a good reader for her age and especially since she just started.  She enjoys reading and books but like many kids her age she suffers from 'if it's not easy I simply can't do it- itis', it's a horrible disease and as far as the research I have done with Google, there is no cure (I will gladly take donations for my wine supply).  So this reading every day thing has been going so smoothly (LOL).  I really did think that it would be simple, spend just about 20 minutes a day having Grace practice her reading.  I know, stupid right - like it would actually take 20 minutes!  Have you ever tried listening to a child learn to read? It's a painful, horrible, magical thing - like child birth - at first eh you deal with it, it's not too bad but then hours later you are thisclose to just ripping that kid out of you.  To me that's how it is hearing my sweet daughter read, or at least when she sounds out words.  She gets all the sounds right and then I tell her - 'put it together, just put those sounds together, just smush them together' and it's agony. She really just says the individual sounds faster and louder.  I have to bite my tongue to keep from shouting, " says, the word is SAYS!"
The sounding out isn't as bad as the whiny, "I can't remember" that is said pretty much any new word pops out, even before I can say, "sound it out!"  My speech has been the same since day one, 'we are going to practice reading every day all summer.  You are learning to read, you need to practice it and yes it's hard but the more you practice, the easier it will get." Rah, rah blah blah.  Then there is some huffing and some tears and asking, why are we doing this and then Grace starts getting all upset.  I sometimes hate the English language and how their words and the rules that come with the words don't make sense.
I do admit though that it is pretty amazing when I get to hear my daughter read a whole sentence and for that one second I go back to my original thought of spending a few minutes/hours every day this summer to practice reading is a good idea.  Maybe in a few years when it's Leah's turn to learn to read, I can be off the hook.