Life With A Baby - My baby has been learning to read sight words!

Friday, July 23, 2010 4:26 AM

Message # 388701

Sylph

Ever and I love our reading together! She has been reading a few sight words for about 4 months now, and blew me away the last month with one of them...

I found a tiny, 2 inch square, board book in a giveaway box, with a picture of a fish on the front, and the word "opposites," on it. I handed it to her, and she immediately said, "Opposites!" I almost had a heart attack! LOL

I know why she did it, since she has another, larger board book called "Scruffy Teddy's Book of Opposites," and obviously, she recognized the word from that. I just wasn't expecting my 23-month-old to add that particular word to her repertoire of sight words, which up until then were usually small words, like book!

We usually read for several hours a day, at Ever's request, and several of the books we read are more than 25 pages long. Her favorite reading activity is for me to read most of a sentence, but for her to fill in some strategic blanks with words that she has memorized, or recognizes by sight. Here is a video link, where you can see a humourous session of our reading together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnmMrlmprbE

I wonder if a lot of others out there are enjoying such amazingly fun and silly, early adventures in literacy, as we are! I sure hope so! :-)

Friday, July 23, 2010 10:48 PM

Reply # 389210 on 388701

Kimberly

My son is 17 months old and will only let me read 2 books!!! I love to read and am trying to incourage this in him, but he will not sit through ANYTHING else...not even the 1st page! How did you get your daughter so in to reading???

Saturday, July 24, 2010 11:40 AM

Reply # 389362 on 389210

Sylph

Kimberly O'Malley wrote:My son is 17 months old and will only let me read 2 books!!! I love to read and am trying to incourage this in him, but he will not sit through ANYTHING else...not even the 1st page! How did you get your daughter so in to reading???

I started reading to her when she was about 3 months old, and at first, she only had a very short attention span (like 2-3 pages), but built up to reading a whole board book by the time she was 6 months or so. It just kept increasing from there, until now, she will bring me every one of the 27 board books in our house, and make me read them from cover to cover, before I can do anything else! She is insistent, and I know better than to try to fight her over it! LOL Ever WILL have her books read, or there WILL be trouble! I am sure you can imagine what it is like when we have an appointment to keep, and she decides it is reading time when we need to get out the door...

I guess, other than introducing reading to her when she was really tiny, I can only claim responsibility for her reading success in as much as I have cooperated with her demands, rather than refusing to meet them. Also, it helps because we don't just read a book straight through, all the time. Many times, we talk about the things in the book, or make sounds for characters or animals in the books, or we point out and identify different things on the pages, which makes it more of an interactive activity than a passive one for Ever.

Maybe you could try some of those activities next time you read to your son, and see if he takes to it more readily. Also, if it seems like he wants to do something else, maybe this just isn't quite his time to get into books. Babies all figure things out in their own good time, and I am sure he will take a greater interest in reading at some later date...

My baby has been learning to read sight words!

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