"little" Victories

As we plug along in 100 Easy lessons I am amazed! It really builds lesson to lesson on skills. DS really is reading. Amazing. As we go on some of the skills get harder. Some of the sounds can be tricky. Until last week I had not realized how much he still uses "w" instead of "l" Such as wuv you. Many times he uses the l and other times he says it as w. Take for example pill he says correctly while sometimes if the l is at the beginning of the word he subconsciencely says it with "w" as in wadder (ladder)
Now l is introduced into the lessons and we have been working REALLY hard to get the correct pronuciation of it. www.fallstar.com has helped. And now he is doing it...more and more!
Also with the lessons it is introducing reading a word the fast way. It has been a concept for a couple of weeks and now it is taking it to the next level. One time through sounding out a word, a whole list of them. Then it switched it to read the list the fast way. URG. Frustration. For him. When he could not do it we sounded them out again and then said them. Half way through the list, he was ready to give up. Many "l" words on the list, to be more specific "li" which are his hardest two sounds. He was near tears. We pressed through sounding them out. Going back over the ones that had tricked him. Then it happened. Something clicked. He said "little" the fast way. Pure delight. Childish giggles. He was so excited, he did it and he knew he did it. He finished the lesson encouraged and successful. The story he naturally read the fast way. Wow!
As follow up to our reading lesson, we got out the sight word cards. Words that he has learned so far in the program. 13 of them; can, run, it, is, in, little, the, me, see, and, I, a, not. For encouraement we brought in Lightning MacQueen and friends. If he said the word correctly the first time he got to send a car sailing off the table. If he got it wrong we sounded it out and went on to the next one. He did great and got little right on the first try. I am telling you "little" victories go along way!