I am so excited I had to share! For the first time tonight, I put up the word HOT on the side of the bathtub today during DD’s nightly bath. She has known how to read this word for the long time and I just expected her to just say it. But she looked at it and said “hhhhhh oooooo ttt…HOT” I am so glad my mom was sitting there with me, I might not have believed it! LOL So, I put up the word ROT, which I have never taught her, and she just stated ROT just like that. :
We are at the absolute earliest stages of sounding out words and I didn’t want to test her to do more so that’s all we did. We will just keep on practicing like we are because it seems to be working. But now I know she gets the CONCEPT of “sounding it out” and I know it’s all sinking in.
I am pretty much the proudest mom in the world at the moment! Had to come on here to share with other parents that could appreciate it properly LOL.
The big difference in the last two weeks is we added in the My Montessori House “Sounds and Words” DVD which teaches the kids how to sound out Man, Can, etc, etc, phonetically. I credit that for getting her over the hump so to speak, but we have been “front loading” and doing a multitude of programs for the while–YBCR, LR, Leapfrog, Preschool prep mixed up along the way for variety along with lots and lots of good old fashioned books.
That’s Great! Your mom must have been blown away. Before you know it she will be reading sentences, then stories, and finally “real” books.
That’s how it went for my first daughter. Back then we didn’t have any fancy programs or DVD’s that we have now, just plain old fashioned flash cards. It felt like it took forever to get her to the point where she could read phonetically. Then once it happened her reading picked up so fast that she was reading full “baby stories” (as she now calls them) in just 2 months. She is almost 8 now and loves to read.
Now I just can’t wait til my second daughter gets over the hump and starts to read phonetically. Right now she can read about 100 words, she just turned 2 and we’ve only been working on it for a few months so that’s not too bad. We also use YBCR, Leap Frog, and LR. LR and the leap frog DVDs keep her attention longer though. I’m hoping that it won’t too long before she is truly reading.
Good luck I hope her reading takes off like a rocket.
Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. For a while right when we started LR, she was picking up new sight words like crazy but then we seemed to be stuck there. She was at standstill, never making it past flash cards and not sight reading couplets and short sentences, nor was she sounding things out. We broke through the couplets/sentence thing a while ago by introducing homemade “sentence strips,” a new approach and the novelty of them seemed to do the trick Now, and I am so glad she is finally “getting it” and putting her letter sounds together. My husband put up the word WAX in the bath tonight and she read it (we know we’ve never taught her that one).
This break though has been really encouraging to me that what we’re doing is actually working, for a while it seemed like we were getting no where. She is my first born and all this early learning stuff is trial and error with what works with my kids and what doesn’t. This is the beginning of the road with her, hopefully this progress will continue.
Press on, keep working the programs with your kids, and know that it will all sink in eventually!
Congratulations. I can imagine how proud you and your mom must be. Keep the good work.
I am planning ahead of time my future grandchild’s lessons. My daughter is due in february and she is also a believer in babies reading at an early age and teaching her languages. So fortunately we will follow your path.
Your experience is very valuable to us.
Thanks for sharing.