It all started this morning with her three part African animal cards (well, she didn't read those, but she matched them up easily and independently).
Then she did her continents map and was trying to read the continent names.
"What does this say, Mommy? Wait, I sound it out."
Poor thing, the continent names aren't really for sounding out.
But she tried - she was making all the sounds for the letters in Europe, except it got her nowhere.
So I printed out the egg CVC from Kelly's Kindergarten (I got this link from My Montessori Journey).
And
she
read!
All the pink eggs!
I missed taking the picture of her holding each word in her hand, hiding the letters she wasn't sounding out and focusing on sounding out just one letter at a time. She was so cute and so focused.
I'm not sure how she got here (reading wise I mean).
Now I'm not sure where to go. My husband strongly believes she's too young and that I should sit back and wait. I think I should casually still try to get her to sound out words daily to practice, but not drill.
Any thoughts?
Congratulations mommy! You're doing a wonderful job! And Bear too!
ReplyDeleteCongrats!!!!! That is awesome!
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same boat you are. It's so exciting yet I'm not totally sure which direction to lead him. B has been obsessed with letters and words lately. He is loving Starfall.com right now, typing words in Word, and Word Factory dvd and he does a lot of maniuplating with his melissa and doug letters. We make a lot of words and play this game in the car..."What word is this? c-a-t? Cat!" So he's been sounding out a lot of cvc words and I think he feels pretty comfortable but he also tries to sound out words that can't be sounded out. I decided my next move is to provide as many opportunities/activities/games for him to play with these cvc words and then I'm also introducing a sight word here and there. So far I've introduced "the" by saying it is a special word that you can't sound out, you just have to know. He loves finding it in books and pointing it out. This morning I hid the word on an index card in the playroom. After "the" I'm going to do "and" and then I think the he, me, she, be family.
OK sorry about the rambling. =) I was just so excited to see your post. Can't wait to see what you decide and do. Your husband may think she is too young, but if she is interested in it, why not provide the opportunities?? That is what I think anyway.
Aha! Well done Bear. So now you know how it feels. Where to go from here? I printed the egg cards out last week but didn't finish cutting them out until today. L has seen them and is very interested but she's back and forth with if she wants to sound things out. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see what you guys are going to do next. It is so exciting when they do that though!
(Loving your posts by the way )
Deja vu! JC just completed those egg words not too long ago too! I was completely torn. On the one hand, I didn't want to push anything she might not like. She hates anything that smells like direct instruction and she gets bored easily with repetition. Games, she will do. She liked the egg words as long as I didn't ask her do it again. But she's really interested in reading and writing. She tries to read everything around her. It just seemed like a shame to just let all that interest go to waste (can't help pass a teachable moment!). And she's so excited about it, it's almost contagious!
ReplyDeleteI just posted some reading activities we did recently. Perhaps, we can brainstorm together and see where it leads us? I figure if JC is not interested, I can always back off. Right now, we're testing out the Reading Eggs website to see if it sustains her interest.
Awesome. I taught chemistry and math in high school before having kids...but nothing compares to your own kids learning to read. I'm loving it.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Bear! Such an amazing step in her learning. I would say that I agree with The Activity Mom. If she shows an interest and there is a no pressure situation, I don't see why not do more practice with her. I know some might say that she is too young but thats comparing it to the "norm". I know most kids learn to read around 4 or 5 but thats not true with every kid. Bear is probably showing you that she is ready and as her mother you know her better than anyone (and thats including milestone charts). I'm very happy for her ;)
ReplyDeletethat's so clever! how old is your little girl?
ReplyDeleteHooray for Bear!!
ReplyDeleteFrom a Montessori perspective, it's all about following the child and being aware of their sensitive periods. To me, Bear is clearly in a sensitive period with words and reading, AND she WANTS to sound things out, so I say GO FOR IT! Obviously without any kind of pushing or pressure (not that you'd ever do that). I'd give her more cvc activities like the eggs and let her have at it!
And I'll have to kindly disagree with your husband - she is (obviously) not too young. People underestimate the power of children's minds and just how much they're capable of in these early years. Bear is SO far ahead of the "norm" and that is more than OK!
You could just have some cvc reading lists out, like on a shelf somewhere so that they are available to her if she wants them. That way no one can accuse you of forcing reading on her. Sounds to me like she taught herself and would probably enjoy more opportunities to read.
ReplyDeleteBig YAY for Bear! I am not a Montessori person, so I was just relying on my own common sense and knowledge of my child. I KNEW that Anna was ready for reading when she began to blend CVC words and recognize some sight words. I think she was about the same age Bear is now or maybe a little younger. She was totally clear on all her letters and sounds before we started Progressive Phonics. I won't lie - it did require a bit of convincing in the beginning and tangible rewards (a piece of chocolate), but her progress surpassed all my expectations. There is no such thing as "too young" - you can always back out and wait until her interest picks up again.
ReplyDeleteShe is NOT too young. My husband remembers reading at age 3. And, not too much long after, reading the dictionary (except he obviously was not getting anything out of it because he read every other line and didn't care)
ReplyDeleteJust follow Bean's lead.
I say if she's interested, then teach her. My daughter was a very early reader (before 2) and then at 5 when we had her testing- we found out she's very gifted in language- it would have been a real shame not to have followed her interest thinking back. Follow the child....and see where it leads them. Good luck- Aly.
ReplyDeletehi again
ReplyDeleteI found this post on Joyful Learner where she references a 2 week free trial of a reading game online. I signed up for the trial to see if B likes it. Just wanted to give you the link.
http://joyfullearner.blogspot.com/2010/04/reading-and-writing-activities.html
Thank you everyone for your comments. We've continued doing the egg puzzle and doing some word cards. She's not interested in Progressive Phonics books, nor the "books" on Starfall, but she'll do the word building activities on Starfall.
ReplyDeleteHOORRAAY Bear!! I think your blog is terrific and was so happy to see the egg cvc game. I downloaded a copy for my son as he's a few months older than Bear and all about words right now. He's also starting to sound out words. Hopefully he'll enjoy the eggs.
ReplyDeleteMy 2c - since your hubby has such a strong opinion, you might ask him what you should do next and then just do that for a month or so. No harm done and it could really make him feel good about being a part and respected (not to imply he doesn't already!).
You're doing a terrific job and I look forward to reading your posts.