Reading Lessons 1-7

I wrote these mini story chapters to teach our youngest to read last winter. Once he knew the letters and basic phonetics from sounding out words with me, I printed this, cut it in strips, and we did one strip each night until by the end he was ready for other books and starting to read on his own. I had done something similar for our daughter; it was also three weeks long, just enough to get her over the hump.

Lessons 1-7 in this post, 8-14 will be in the next, and 15-21 will be in the last.

1 - The pig lay in the mud. She was as big as a cow. The sun shone on her big pink muddy side. She wiggled her large triangle ears and grinned. She was cool on the bottom, on the mud, and warm on top, in the sun. She felt like two pigs. One made of ice cream, the other made of warm bread.

2 - The pig lay in the mud. She dreamed of baking like a big loaf of bread. She dreamed she was glazed with egg and sugar and baking golden brown. She took a deep breath. She could smell the bread baking, the smell of golden crust. She raised her big head and sniffed again. She smelled not bread but pie. She got up and trotted towards the farm house.

3 - The fresh baked pie was on the windowsill cooling. It was an apple pie. The pig looked up at it with her little pink eyes. Her big flat nose bobbed up and down, sniffing. Her big ears, with white hairs all around the edges, flapped with joy. She loved apple pie.
“Shoo pig!” said the farm wife. “This is NOT your pie! Shoo! Scat!”

4 - The pig grunted and tossed her big pink head, splashing mud on the side of the farm house. It almost got on the pie. The farm wife snatched up the pie and took it in the kitchen. She came back to the window.
“You’re not going to get that pie by getting it dirty. It’s NOT your pie! Shoo!”
The pig turned and trotted back into the farm yard.

5 - The pig lay down in the mud again, on the other side this time. Cool side to the sun, warm side to the cool mud. “I am a big cream pie,” thought the pig. “I am baking in the oven. My crust is getting brown. I will eat the pie with chocolate muddy sauce. I like the smell of coffee from the house, but I won’t drink coffee when I eat the pie. I’m a big pink and brown pie.”

6 - The pig lifted her head and looked back to the house. The pie was back on the windowsill. The pig got up slowly and snuck up on it. She was going to eat that apple pie. She could almost feel the hot apples in her mouth, the warm crust between her teeth. A broom came out of the window and smacked her on the nose. “Shoo, pig!” yelled the farm wife. The broom came down again - thwack!

7 - The farmer came into the farm yard with a bucket. He saw the pig sneaking up on the pie and grinned. Would the pig get the pie or would he have it with his lunch? It would be fun to find out. Then the broom came out the window and whacked the pig over and over until the pig ran away. The farmer felt sorry for her, but was glad there would be apple pie for lunch. He walked to the pig trough with the bucket.