Today, my 20mo read her first word… I’m of course excited and so happy that she’s finally letting me know that she knows… it’s always nice to have feedback lol
But more than everything, I am amazed at how it happened.
Since I don’t have time to do LR French categories anymore, I decided to create a few flashcards. The ones I made were over 6 month old and I was no longer using them.
I decided to include my daughter in the process: I wrote and cut the flashcards next to her on the couch and I asked her which words she wanted me to write. (she was watching some cartoons and I can’t say that she was really interested in what I was doing)
I thought of all the new words she’d been saying recently and decided to write those.
I would simply say “See, I’m writing the word doll, uncle etc etc.” Lastly I thought of a word, out of the blue, that she hadn’t said yet and wrote Robot.
This was this morning and tonight, just before going to bed, I showed her the words but I did not ‘flash’ per se, I showed them at my own pace and the last one was ROBOT, and I heard a little voice saying ‘wobo’. I was so surprised, I asked her to repeat and she said it again, ‘wobo’ (the French R is hard to say for a child, and the last letter is silent)
So I’m deducting from this experience that:
-Children only need to look at a word once, and very briefly to remember it.
-That they tend to pay more attention to words they do not know.
I’ll change ‘tactics’ and only show her words she does not know from now on.
YEA! 20 months too ~ WOW!! That’s wonderful. It is so exciting when you see your hard work paying off. You know they’re learning, but it’s still so nice to get the reinforcement!
Congratulations, and good job, I know what you’re feeling, I had no words to describe what I felt when my daughter read her first word: hand. I wanted everyone to see the reading, but she did not read to any one, then everyone started to make fun of me. Nobody believed I was going to make my daughter read. Know every body just chat up.
It’s amazing isn’t it? Sometimes you wonder if they’re taking in anything at all and then they they blow you away when they reveal what they’ve learned.
I’ve got to agree that they are more interested in what they don’t know. I find that when I flash new cards for my sons, they pay attention. So that’s usually my clue when it’s time to change - if they’re getting bored of what I show, it means they already know it.
Doman also says that children only need to look at the cards very briefly to remember them. I found my problem was that it was hard for me to grasp that since it takes me so much longer to learn new material. I forget that learning for kids is completely different to what it is for me.
I made a lot of mistakes with my first child because I didn’t know enough. I stopped teaching when I thought there were no results only to discover months later that he had been absorbing everything I showed him. I really agree - you’ve got to keep going and one day your child will surprise you with what he’s learned.
I know how this feels! That’s why when time permits, we make use of the video-recorder so that that precious moment can be watched over and over again!
Thats great hypatia. My son does the same thing.I dont flash always. But i doubt now that only flashin the card stimulated the right brain right? Does teaching the words stimulate??
That is so encouraging, Hypathia! Good job! I am sure we all remember the first word our babies read. It is so exciting and encouraging. I did find that once we were doing a program for a year or so that my baby only needed to see a word once or twice to know it. I would sit and write big words on cards like tremendous, gigantic, microscopic, bacteria, and the second or third time I flashed them he was saying them. I think that is a sign that we need to bump it up and get into sentences and books when they get to that point, but I still continued to show single words too.
This week-end, I plan on using Krista’s idea (making personalised books) by using the 2nd BK binder. I’ll use a few pictures/magzine cuttings and write down couplets.
I’m not sure. When my daughter refused to look at flashcards (from age 6m to 13/14 months roughly) my mother told me she’d never used this technique with my brother and was instead showing the cards to him, one at a time, sitting on the floor. She started at 18m (btw the cards were really small!) and at 24m he started identifying every single one of them.
Right now we do a combination: LR (and now Baby Bit French) are fast, my own card and the binders are slow.
I guess it’s good to have both (but i must admit i haven’t read that much about right/left brain learning)
congrates!!! I know how u feel!! its very exciting indeed… i guess its also about finding a way how ur little one learn. i used doman before and its just hard to catch my son’s attention… eventho he could point to me the correct word when i ask him which is which, not all the time tho… but the process of trying to flash in front of his eyes when he didnt want to look at all wasnt very encouraging…
but now instead of flashing cards that he isnt very interested in, i write it on the white board, and that catches his full attention… now he learn at a fast pace, every word i teach, i teach a few time n i ask him to either show to me or say it out, its more like a game, and of cos i teach the words that he is familiar with… im very happy i found a way to teach without any stress and result is very encouraging… HAPPY ^^
Thanks Mirra. This was actually the first and only time she did it.
She still surprises me by remembering things we’ve seen or heard once, but not interested at all in reading. I teach an adult and a teenager to read in my home almost every night and she sometimes climbs on my lap to take a peek. Hopefully this will inspire her!
I’d like to add a note for those little kiddos like mine who dislike ‘showing off’ (you know, the ones who tell you an red apple is green if prompted) lol
I realized that all the early learning activities I’m doing with my daughter are done exclusively by myself. All the book reading, dvd watching, games played, LR etc… she knows only through me.
I’ve been spending a lot more time than usual with my parents lately and asked my mother if she would like to do something with her, which the two of them would do exclusively. She agreed and made her own cards (very small, on cardboard). Every day she wrote a new word next to my daughter. I was never part of the process. Well today my mother asked me to watch them play. (my daughter could not see me).
And then my daughter proceeded to read every single words showed to her (6) It was taking her about a second to reply as my mom would hand a card to her.
Such a sweet feeling.
hypatia,
i felt the same way when my grandson gives me a wrong answer but when another person asks the same thing, they received a correct answer, Then I realized that I have been pressing too much and stop asking. Only when i see he is full receptive i continue with a program.
