Just to update, I think the problem has been the school's in some part the whole time. I swear it's the program they're using to teach reading. They only teach basic CVC phonics as far as I can figure out. Well, the book DS brought home to read had a list of about 20 words that broke the short vowel CVC rules. My only thought is they're expecting the children to just memorize all these as sight words and then either teach the phonics rules later or never! They included long vowel-silent e words, double vowel words (oo, ai, ou, oo, etc combos), consonant blends (ch, th, etc which I had to teach at home), as well as what I would consider true sight words (where, said, etc).
DS even said to me he doesn't know when to use the long or short sounds of a vowel when I talked with him. I'm beyond frustrated about this program. I don't think he should necessarily know these things in K. I think the challenge has been pretty good for him to learn reading, but at this point it's ridiculous to have a child memorize all these words when you can just teach them the rules and they can sound them out! Sigh. With only four weeks left in school I'll be focusing on long vowels, vowel teams, silent e, and sight words. PITA!
