1000 Words

I'm teaching Jordan and Jake both to read. The funny thing is that I'm using completely different approaches with them. We're doing sight reading with Jordan, as suggested by NACD and phonics with Jake. With Jordan, I'm working through the 1000 word list with her. Its the 1000 most commonly used words in the English language. She's learning 15 new each week. Well, the list I have is broken down into how common they are. We're not going in order, so keeping track of the words we have has gotten complicated. So, I asked Ed to help me out this weekend so I could type them on the computer and alphabetize them. That way, I can highlight the words she already knows and make word cards for the rest. He was a great sport and started reading me the list as I typed the words. He got through the first column and I told him to continue and he did. He finished the first page and I asked him to continue. This is the point at which he realized there were a THOUSAND words! And, I'm still lauging at his response: "You realize I won't be able to talk to you for the next 3 days because this is using up all my words!" That's a man for ya.