Our daughter, M, is almost 4years old. She has always had a love for learning. That has benefited her very well with the way she has had to overcome apraxia, a speech disorder. She worked (and continues to) very hard with speech therapists and teachers to learn how to produce basic sounds. Then she learned to put sounds together and eventually made words.
Now M's love of learning is spilling over into the written word. She knows all of her letters and the sounds they make. (I attribute this mostly to the Leap Frog Letter Factory
DVD and highly recommend it for ages 2-4. Of course that was combined with good old-fashioned learning at home and school, but the video is what helped her before age 3.)
M also loves to spell her name. Now don't misunderstand me. She no longer likes to write or trace her name. But she will sing it, paint it, and BUILD IT! This is a tower of the letters in her name. She was playing with an alphabet puzzle (available at dollar stores), when she made her name and then was incredibly proud of the tower that went with it.
She made me a proud mom when she went on to spell "cat," and I quickly grabbed the camera. Cat is a word she has learned how to spell. It's more memorized than sounded out.
I asked her to spell "pig" for me, and I helped emphasize the sounds while she chose the letters.
Before long M proved that she is, indeed, just three years old (almost four). She wanted to spell map, and insisted this was the correct spelling, despite knowing it begins with /m/.
Now M's love of learning is spilling over into the written word. She knows all of her letters and the sounds they make. (I attribute this mostly to the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and highly recommend it for ages 2-4. Of course that was combined with good old-fashioned learning at home and school, but the video is what helped her before age 3.) M also loves to spell her name. Now don't misunderstand me. She no longer likes to write or trace her name. But she will sing it, paint it, and BUILD IT! This is a tower of the letters in her name. She was playing with an alphabet puzzle (available at dollar stores), when she made her name and then was incredibly proud of the tower that went with it.
She made me a proud mom when she went on to spell "cat," and I quickly grabbed the camera. Cat is a word she has learned how to spell. It's more memorized than sounded out.
I asked her to spell "pig" for me, and I helped emphasize the sounds while she chose the letters.
Before long M proved that she is, indeed, just three years old (almost four). She wanted to spell map, and insisted this was the correct spelling, despite knowing it begins with /m/.I will be linking this up at the great site ABC and 123. Go to see more great fun and learning ideas!
Great idea!
ReplyDeleteLove the new look of your blog! =)
At some point I will break down and get foam letters. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm totally with you on the Leap Frog letters.
It is so exciting to see them learning and trying new skills!
ReplyDeleteOoh. Glad to know about the Leap Frog video. I've been wondering if there is a good phonics video out there that would help us blend letters. We've got the letter sounds down and Bookworm1 is asking me how to spell certain words. I just need to be more focused and dedicated to explaining/teaching, I guess!
ReplyDeleteI love Leapfrog videos and toys. C was much more interested in spelling words at an early age than R has been.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, this sounds so familiar! Way to go, M!
ReplyDeleteEsme still likes to write her name, but it's funny how one week she LOVES tracing or writing on lines, and the next week she wants nothing to do with it. And then just messing around with stuff - she'll write Ss over and over the right way to show she gets it - and then write it the wrong way, insisting it's right (with a glint in her eye). I haven't figured out if she's testing me/herself as to whether it really matters, or just being a goofball.