Hooked on Phonics

A while back I was introduced to Bob Books by Thingamababy.  His daughter began reading Bob Books at an early age.  Read about it here.  Shortly after learning about the books, I bought the first set.  We didn’t have much luck.  Over time they were mostly forgotten as other books became Tristan’s favorites.  Tristan was still interested in reading and eventually writing.

Here a month shy of three is his writing (mostly tracing) a few letters (he could write some letters without tracing, but this was the only time I bothered to take a picture of his writing):

Yes, he’s a lefty.  I was corrected by my mother-in-law.  Apparently, her mother and her grandmother were both lefty’s.  Now I know where he got it from. An oddity since I don’t know of any lefty’s on either side of the family.  

 

I did some searching for programs and sites that are kid friendly as Tristan became more interested in the computer.  I found www.starfall.com.  It focuses on literacy through phonetics.  Some parts of it is kind of cheesy, but to a three year old, it was something new and something Mommy and Daddy would allow him to play around with while on the computer.  I would let him play around on his own and with our guidance.  Before I knew it, he was pronouncing all the letters phonetically with amazing accuracy.  We revisited the Bob books and I was amazed that around the age of 3 1/2 he could read them.  With some assistance, he was able to get through the first set. 

 

For the last couple of weeks, I’d catch him sounding out words.  He would break them down and sound them out phonetically.  This morning I wanted to test his ability to spell words.  We talked a little bit about fire.  He was sounding the word out when I asked him to tell me the letters.  At first, he would just say the letters phonetically.  “Ffff”  “ahh”  “rrr”.  So, I had him type the letters. 

 

Here is what he spelled (correct spelling in parentheses):

 

FORR (fire)

 

FOOG (frog)

 

CAML (camel)

 

ELFANT (elephant)

 

FLOMEGOO (flamingo)

 

DOG (dog)

 

SNAC (snake)

 

CAT (cat)

 

.FINK (fink – correctly spelled – name comes from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss)

 

SSOC (shark)

 

Tristan had always been interested in reading and writing.  I’m excited about his interest in spelling, too.  I haven’t tried to force the issue on him, but I do try to encourage it.  Lately, we’ve been reading Green Eggs and Ham almost every night before bedtime.  He loves the rhythm, rhymes and repetition.