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Friday, October 10, 2008

Gotta brag

I know, I know, I've done a lot of bragging lately but I'm gonna brag again. Since Lauren was very little, we have always sung the ABC song and played with giant magnetic letters and blocks just like they were a toy. We had time to teach her to identify each letter and we taught her how to write most of them, but not lowercase. We make sure the kids watch mostly educational programs on TV like Between the Lions, Sesame Street, Super Why, and Word World. I am a teacher and I want my children to have a great foundation when they start school (just like most parents do). Now we haven't had as much time to work with Caleb, especially after Abby was born, but he still has managed to learn the letters AND SOUNDS just by watching his sister or TV.

The other day I took a phonics game for the computer home because I have no student computers in my class and the program is FABULOUS! It is Edmark's Let's Go Read- An Island Adventure.

So I popped it in the computer, wondering if Lauren would be interested and if she could understand all the different activities. The first activity introduces a letter (T) and tells what sound it makes. Then it asks the player to repeat the sound. Next, there is a sorting game where she looks at a letter and puts it in the "t" basket or the other basket. It progresses on to words that start with "t" and their pictures. She has to choose the words that start with "t". There is a book for each letter and even a puzzle where they make the capital and lowercase letters. She has done a super job. She identifies all the letters, uppercase and lowercase, tells what sounds they make, can find words that begin with that sound, finds words with the sound in the middle, and last night got to a level where the game told her to make the words by dragging the letters, and she could do it! I hate to admit it but she was mesmerized for 2 hours and we had to peel her away to put her jammies on.

Then, to add to my surprise, Caleb was sitting there telling Lauren what the letters were (even most of the lowercase) as they popped up and telling her where to put the letters. He is 2 1/2.
You can call it bragging if you want to, I am one proud Mama!

1 comment:

Texas Aggie in Florida said...

Isn't it funny how some just absorb it faster than others? Ashton kicks Lexi's tail at those hidden picture books. And she's about to beat her with her letters and sounds too. But Ashton is one that can sit and watch Sesame Street and Super Why and shows like that that teach phonics, whereas Lexi could care less about the T.V. and has never been able to sit still long enough to watch those kinds of shows. She's so A.D.D. (like her daddy!)