Paul Jennings - Encouraging Children to Read: Number 7

I find it so hard to just let my daughter guess! She often guesses so randomly instead of sounding the word out. I'm sure she does it because, as a strategy, it works sometimes, but it can make reading painful when she won't actually sound something out, or when she is failing to sound it out because she has such a strong idea in her head about what she thought it was. BUT, it is so helpful to have guessing presented in a positive 'understanding meaning' light. With that in mind, I will approach encouraging her to sound the word out (instead of the random guesses) with more positivity and less "just stop guessing!!!".