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I love to read. According to my mother I more or less just figured it out on my own. She didn't have much patience for reading aloud, so she let me look at books on my own at bedtime, and apparently I just started doing it at four or so (Mom is pretty vague about such things). To say that reading has been a huge part of my life is an understatement. It is who I am personally and professionally. Some of my most profound experiences have come through books.

So given that background, you can imagine that I'm a bit apprehensive and really excited as E starts to show interest in words and letters. I think he's been giving off indicators for the past two months or so that he's ready to start cracking the code. I feel a huge sense of responsibility. I don't want to spoil it for him. I want him to love it, though I can't possibly expect for him to love it as much as I do.

The issue is complicated a bit by his bilingualism, and by the fact that he won't be eligible for any special training in English language skills when he starts school (next summer, or maybe the summer after if we think that would be better). After talking to a friend who is in the same situation (American married to a Norwegian, Norwegian in the home, kids bilingual, etc.) and she said she basically did supplemental "home schooling" in English language arts while her kids attended regular Norwegian elementary school. That seems like the best solution, so I've just started the overwhelming task of looking into what's out there. My sense is that it absolutely hast to be secular (not much of that in the homeschooling world) and that I want books, not computer programs.

I'm going to use this post as a clearing house for what I find. So far, through a secular homeschooling discussion forum called The Denim Jumper I've found the following recommendations (I'll come back and post links as I find them and comments as I find out more):

• Reading Reflex (Amazon link): Here's a link to a detailed user review
  
• Teach Your Child to Read In 100 Easy Lessons: (website link, Amazon link):
  
• The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (Amazon link):
  
• Phonics Pathways (website link):
  
• BOB Books (Amazon link):
  
• Alpha-Phonics: A Primer for Beginning Readers (website link):
  
• www.starfall.com (website link):
  
• Pup and Pop series (Amazon link):
  
• McGuffy Reader series
• Explode the Code (website link)
  
• Stairway to Reading
• Sing, Spell, Read, Write

If any of you have experience with these, I'd be extremely grateful for any feedback and opinions you can give me. I'm already overwhelmed with just this list, and have no idea what to do. I suppose it will more or less depend upon chance...