Well, son #2 entered the world not long ago! He is very healthy, very interactive, and generally so far we’re having fun, although not necessarily getting a lot of sleep.
I’m not sure we’re going to do that much different with this one. I know we’ll be reading lots of books, as many as possible–and we’ll try to get son #1 involved in that. I am very sure we’ll be doing as much or more work on the alphabet and alphabet sounds earlier. I still haven’t made up my mind whether I’ll be actually trying to teach him how to read earlier than son #1. In particular I’m not sure whether I’ll try to use any sort of whole word-type method before trying to do phonics. It bothers me a little that unless the child can read a word out loud, you really don’t know if he has actually learned the phonics lesson. Of course, I’m very familiar with the whole concept of absorbing info without spitting it back, and I know that for the most part that’s the way it should be done with little ones, but the whole point of doing phonics flashcards in the first place is to teach phonics, and, well, if you’re not succeeding in doing it systematically (because the kid is not keeping up and you don’t know that he isn’t), then there’s no point in trying to teach phonics. I’d also be a little afraid of getting him tired of the phonics flashcards before he’s ready for them. That would be sad–I would hate it if he could learn as well as son #1 did at 22 months, but got turned off to the flashcards at age 10 months or whatever, and didn’t want to go back to them. Well, those are my worries, I might just bite the bullet and try it anyway.
Congratulations, DadDude! Will be looking forward to hearing about your progress.
By the way, I started introducing your fleschcards to my four-year-old, so far so good (I get “More!” at the end of each session!). Using this opportunity, let me say a big “thank you” to you!
Congratulation for your little one. Even though you may not be sleeping much I imagine how happy you must be. How is your ‘big’ kid doing? Is he showing signs of jealousy or what? Did you did anything special to help him with the idea of the new family member?
I am starting to see my grandson more closer to me specially when we talk about the little girl that will arrive in February. Maybe it is better not to talk about her yet?
Well, we read the very first books to baby after getting three boxes of baby books from the basement. “Baby’s First Words” and “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket.” At first I read these books to the baby (not yet two weeks) with him on my left arm on a chair, and the older boy sat in the chair on my right and gazed at the proceedings with great interest. The baby was paid excellent attention to “Baby’s First Words,” seemed to be looking at the book very well. He lost interest in reading halfway through the second book (started looking elsewhere) so I stopped. A little later, baby was sitting in his car seat and brother was reading more books. So I have on video now the first time brother read to baby. He read the whole book very well. Brother had no hesitation about reading, was eager to act on my suggestion. He likes the idea of helping his baby brother learn to read. When I mention this, he says, “Yes, and I am working on an essay about how to teach babies to read.” :biggrin: So far there has not been even a single tiny smidgen of resentment of the older toward the younger–but I say, just give it time.
P.S. by the way, we actually did some iPad flashcard apps a few days ago. He paid good attention to those, too. I’ll have to start thinking about whether to start this now, if he’s going to pay attention!
