• 7 goals (16%) were completed successfully.
• 8 goals (19%) were abandoned.
• 28 goals (65%) will be carried over for 2008.

What goals have I chosen for 2009? 28 goals have been carried over, 14 new goals have been added, and 1 goal from 2006/07 has returned:

1. attend a local government meeting
2. Be a better blogger
3. be an audience member for a TV show taping
4. Be part of a flash mob
5. build an igloo
6. clean up my house and keep it clean
7. coach hockey*
8. create a photo wall in my house*
9. drink more water
10. eat healthier
11. eat with my hands
12. Find $100 in change*
13. find and schedule appointments with: a doctor, dentist, and optometrist*
14. fly a kite
15. Give blood
16. have a 3 month emergency fund
17. help my son continue his physical therapy until he is 100% rehabilitated*
18. know how to solve a rubik's cube*
19. Learn how to remember peoples' names
20. Learn Spanish
21. leave notes in library books*
22. lose weight
23. make a time capsule
24. make plaster of paris handprints for the family*
25. Not let distractions take away from my attention to the wife*
26. open the yellow pages, pick the seventh restaurant, and eat the seventh entree and dessert on the menu
27. paint my own abstract art‡
28. place a few more geocaches*
29. play hockey*
30. Reduce debt.
31. Send a message in a bottle
32. Send a postcard to Postsecret
33. spend ten minutes holding the door for people
34. stick to a budget
35. stop being late
36. take 43 photos of 43 places within 43 minutes of where I live‡
37. take a family vacation
38. Take the Mensa test.
39. teach my child phonics*
40. turn 33*
41. Volunteer
42. Watch all my VHS tapes and get rid of them.*
43. Write a will

* A new goal for 2008.
‡ A renewed goal from before 2008.

You can always view my current list and past accomplished goals at 43 Things or on my own 43 Things page here.

Here's to the new year. May I accomplish at least some of these important 43 Things. And here's hoping you are able to accomplish your goals, too!

Sebastian received the highest possible score for his Kindergarten reading evaluation. He was placed in the accelerated reading program.

Sebastian had a great time in the accelerated reading program, where he got to read more challenging books. He was pretty proud of himself when I pointed out that one of the books he was reading was labeled as a third grade book!

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I had hoped for Sebastian to complete the Hooked on Phonics program before school starts. Mission accomplished!

As we normally do, Sebastian placed the last sticker on his Level 5 map, and then we did the "I Did It!" dance. I have included an animated picture here as a reference so that you can dance along at home.

Hooked on Phonics time can just be "reading time" from now on. I have selected 28 books for reading time that Sebastian should be able to read with minimal help. Sebastian is really interested in most of these books, and I think he is impressed with himself that he can read books that aren't part of the Hooked on Phonics program.

It's nice to know that school starts in less than a week, and Sebastian already has a solid set of reading skills.

Hooked on Phonics worked for Sebastian!

Yesterday, Sebastian finished Level 4 of Hooked on Phonics! Just one more level to go until Sebastian becomes a HOP graduate!

If you'll remember, Sebastian finished Level 3 of Hooked on Phonics in the morning of July 30 during Blogathon. That means he finished Level 4 off in just 18 days.

I'm encouraging Sebastian to finish Hooked on Phonics completely before school starts. As of this posting, there's about 18 1/2 days until school starts, so he could, in theory, accomplish this goal without much trouble.

Level 5 seems to be relatively short, and if I try my best to work with him each and every day, it's certainly a possibility. I'm hoping that if he can complete the program before school starts, he will have a confidence boost for his first day of school.

Sebastian woke up in the middle of the night and insisted on finishing up Level 3 of Hooked on Phonics.

Since he wasn't feeling well anyway, I let him stay up, and we read through the last remaining book of the level, titled "Camper Kim." He filled up his sticker chart and completed the level!

My son has made me so proud with his reading skills. Now that he has the hang of reading, he only needs to be shown most letter combination sounds once, and he's off and running with it!

Hooked on Phonics really did work for him!

This post was originally posted at The Smarmy Carny, Novac's general blog, during Blogathon 2006.

Two weeks ago, we got to the letter combination of "sl."

The word was simple: "slap." He read it with no problems, and I asked him, "Like what?"

His answer was a matter-of-fact "Like when mommy slaps me."

Of course, I couldn't help but erupt into laughter at his naive reply, and I ran straight to my wife to tell her what rumor I had heard through the grapevine.

Let's just wait until he offers that up in kindergarten in the fall. Hopefully I won't be home to take that call.

No, it's not that word ending in "ck," so don't worry . . . and I won't bother you about the time he was reading "tips" by using the "t" sound a second time in place of the "p."

One method I have added to the HOP method is that I will sometimes ask Sebastian, "What's that?" or "Like what?" so that he can explain what that word means. Originally, I did this to ensure that Sebastian understood the words he was sounding out because even though he could originally put the "m" and "at" sounds together, he had no idea he was saying "mat." This mini-game became so enjoyable to Sebastian that he started telling me what many of the words were. Often, he would throw me off. For instance, when he read off "bat," I would expect him to mention baseball, but he would say "They fly around at nighttime!" This was not the only time that he surprised me with his description.

Hooked on Phonics will introduce sounds, and in the book, they have a page with various words using that sound. Here's the "a-ck" section from the "ck" page:

ack: back – Jack – lack – pack – rack – sack

After reading off the last of the "ack" words, Sebastian gleefully looked at me and announced, "Sack — just like the sack under my pee-pee!" I then felt obliged to explain that the word is more generally used to describe many sorts of bags.

Ahh, the joys of being a parent . . .