The other day Kolby brought me a Dr. Seuss book called Hop on Pop, which has lots of rhyming words in it. We have read the book a few times in the past, but it has never been a favorite before. So, Kolby sat down next to me and proceeded to ask me what the different words said, and I would tell him -- which has been a common occurance for months now. And then I heard him sound out the word "Fall" by himself after I told him what the words "All" and "Ball" said. So I perked up and started working on it with him a bit. We went through the book once or twice and I would tell him the ending sound of the rhyming words, and then he would try to tell me what each word was with a different begining letter, like I would cover up the first "P" on "Pup" and tell him that "U" "P" spells "up." Then I would work with him so he could try to sound out the rhyming words like "Pup" and "Cup." There were a few words he kept getting caught up on, like "He" and "Him," but it didn't take him long to get those. I was pretty impressed, and was excited that he was starting to be able to sound out these words with my help. Then the next afternoon he brought the book to me again and started to go through the words, and he was sounding out a lot of them without my help. I helped him with a few of the different sounds, and then I had to grab the video camera because I realized he was actually reading, and not just repeating memorized stories or looking at the pictures to figure out the words. It is so cool when your baby starts to learn to do big kid things for the first time (and to see how quickly he picks it up!)
