Hello everyone! I’m new here, my name is Julia and I’m from Ukraine, Kiev. (sorry for my English beforehand_\ :rolleyes: )
My baby is 8 Months old and I show him 1 lesson a day for 30 days, but he really looks tired at the end of the lesson (in the game part). My question is about the games: he doesn’ t point any pictures or word, I do that for him, trying to explain and putting the finger under the word (spelling). But he doesn’t look interested. For me it is the most complicated part of the lesson. I’m trying to make it fun. Sometimes I choose the right answer, sometimes wrong and explain it to my baby. But he looks uninterested.
May be there is no need to show him the games in this age? May be we should start games a little bit later? And the same problem we have with pattern phonics!
What will you advice? Thank you very much in advance!
It sounds like you are doing great!! Keep in mind that many babies learn a lot from a program like LR, but they don’t show you what they know. For me it is the hardest part because it feels like my 2 year old has become an expert at showing me he has learnt nothing, yet there are times when he reads amazingly well, and recalls tons of facts and even does a bit of math and music. He shares what he knows spontaneously, at the most unexpected times. Some babies deliberately answer incorrectly to see what your response will be. There are 8 month old babies who will point to the correct answers so maybe it’s got more to do with you baby’s personality than his age.
I’d say that you can play the games the way you’ve been doing or skip them all together (the games and phonics weren’t always a part of LR, yet tons of babies learned to read with it.)
My son also didn’t like any part of the program that didn’t have pictures, same for the colors category, but I played them anyway. Some days we would go through them quickly, others I would really make an effort of clowning about and finding objects to mach the words etc, but he generally just looked the other way. lol Much later on (maybe after 8 months using LR) he started to warm up to word flash and pattern phonics.
Learning must be fun. Don’t worry about the phonics or games. Just skip it if he doesn’t see the interest or just answer it right away. No need to give explanation even if it is wrong. It is not necessary to introduce the game at this point. For now, just expose the part that he has interest with. At this moment, focus on the input, not the output. By the time your son have enough input, the output will be done by himself automatically. The games are just the media to check by himself (not us) whether he already know the words. Do not ask him to point the word as we expect the spontaneous reaction for him to answer. If he is ready to answer, you will be amazed how quick he will give the answer.