Okay, three posts in a day--this has to be a record. Anyway, the other day Elijah was playing with dominoes, and after a while he announced "I made 'lion'!" I took a look, and sure enough, he had carefully lined up the dominoes to spell: LIEAN. Which does say 'lion' if you think of it as LIE-AN. I thought this was very cute. :) Oh, and he had it backwards, reading from right to left.
So far he is self-taught--I really should get my act together and teach him some proper phonics. I started the book "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," but stopped when I realized he was not even close to being able to do the writing sections. A couple of months later I thought about the book again, and realized, duh, who says we have to do the writing sections? We can just skip them. Now it's just a matter of remembering to do it with him (at an opportune time, like when the other little ones are napping).
Okay, that's really all for the day.
I've been wondering about the writing sections too. I feel they're beyond what Abigail can handle, but I *have* printed out some sheets from Super Teacher Worksheets and she has made *some* valiant attempts, as well as scribbling all over them!
ReplyDeleteBut we're only on about Lesson 5 and we have had the book for several weeks, so I guess I need to be more committed. The distinction between "say it slowly" and "say it fast" is another problem for her. I think at her age (nearly 3) you just mustn't take it too seriously.
Now here's a thing: Benjamin (who's been paying a good bit of attention to what I've been doing with Abigail from the book) came up, unprompted, with the last word of "Rosie's Babies" which is "ME!" in big letters. Rachel didn't think the book had been read in his hearing for weeks, and that he was asleep when I was pointing out the letters of the word to Abigail the previous day. So she thought he might have actually read it, but the evidence from showing him the word written on a piece of paper was rather weak - for instance he said "D" which is one of his shorthand expressions for "letters", much as Abigail at one time said "A - B", even extending this to her personal name for the supermarket TESCO (a place with signs in big letters). He does know the lowercase letter "m" very well, it's really his favourite - but I don't think he's so keen on the uppercase M.
Hiya Sharon! So nice to have an update from your side of the world! And I was just saying FINALLY a picture of the bridal party!! I can't get on Anna's Bebo for whatever reason to view her pictures so it was VERY nice to see this one. Yikes, that would be stressful not being able to watch Elijah as much as you would have.
ReplyDeleteLately I've been really thinking about those reusable bags...but we do HUGE shops everyother week, and I feel it would just be more work but maybe not.
Anyways, lovely update!
Ev xx
I sympathise with the stress of trying to do two things at once (ie be a bridesmaid and a mom), I know how it feels.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lovely wedding.
Re teaching reading, we've (almost) always used non-phonics - "look say". It works very well, esp with young children who can understand how a word looks (like they recognise their own name), without knowing the sounds.
How old are your dc?
Henrietta
Peter: Elijah didn't get the "say it slowly" and "say it fast" exercises the first time I got the book out (I think he was just about three?), but a while later (maybe three and a half?) he got it right away. I guess he just wasn't ready the first time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the worksheets link--I think Elijah could use something like this. :)
Noah recognizes M and G when I read him one of our alphabet books, but I don't know if he would recognize them in other contexts. He uses "M" as shorthand for "letters." It's cute that Benjamin does the same thing with "D."
Ev: Glad I could oblige with the picture. :) You could always try one reusable bag and see how you like it. I think the only trouble is remembering to bring them, but they are quite convenient to use.
Henrietta: Elijah will be four in October. I've read that early readers often do best with the look-say method, with phonics instruction coming later on. But Elijah doesn't seem to recognize words as a whole yet. He does try to sound them out however. He learned the alphabet in capital letters a couple of years ago and has figured out most of the lowercase letters, and the sounds, since then. Noah is 18 months old.
Oh, and thanks for all the comments. :)
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