Reading: Chapter 1
A few precocious children learn to read at 4. But the norm is for an interest to start at 4 and actual reading to begin at age 5 or even 6 or 7. Before your child can start sounding out words, he needs to begin recognizing letters and understanding that words are read from left to right. These things sound basic, and they are — they're the foundation every child needs to become a reader.
Seems like Kayla is spot on in the reading department. She recognizes all of her letters and likes to practice making their sounds (especially the consonants). Sometimes, when we're driving to and from school, we play a Beginning Consonants word game (and on occasion, a Beginning Digraph game!). Kayla will shout out from the back seat, "T-T-Turtle!! Mommy, it's your turn!" and I have to come back with another word that begins with the same sound, like, "T-T-Toast!" We go back and forth until Kayla decides to change the sound. My favorite last week was when she started with some digraphs, like "Tr-Tr-Truck" and "Tr-Tr-Train."
In addition to her consonants and some basic digraphs, Kayla loves to pretend to read. For her birthday, she got a really cool pair of dinosaur books by Jane Yolen (a Smithie, by the way, hollaaaaaa!!). Jane Yolen has a whole series of books whose titles start with "How do Dinosaurs..." The two books Kayla has right now are "How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" and "How do Dinosaurs Eat their Food?" The illustrations are awesome (Mark Teague is a fabulous illustrator, as well as an author - the "Mrs. LaRue" books are hilarious!) and the text is very repetitive, which is conducive for children who are pretending to "read." Within a week, Kayla was able to "read" both books by herself, with a little help from time to time on the pages she couldn't remember.
Yesterday, Kayla got a hold of this book and started to "read" it quietly to herself:
She likes to bring random objects into the car for the rides to and from school (i.e., the yellow baby spoon, toys, etc.) and today she wanted to bring her "mixer book." She barely spoke more than 2 sentences today because she was so absorbed in the book. When I was unfastening her seat belt I asked her if she saw a picture of a yummy dessert that she wanted to make. She was a little upset when I asked that, and she responded with, "I wasn't looking at pictures. I was reading the letters." She flipped open to one of the first several pages, and it was ALL text with the exception of some diagrams (I think it was the instructions on how to lock and unlock the mixer, etc.) So funny! [That's what I get for hoping she'd come up with an idea for a dessert this weekend, or a birthday cake for George!]
Hahaha - oh Kayla...before you know it, she'll really be reading the mixer book. You should force Hop on Pop to her so that it can be the 1st book that all three of us read.
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