From sight words to "reading" words

Cary has been showing signs lately that he really wants to know how to read. He picks up anything he can find with words on it and asks us, "What does this word say? What does this word say?"

I told my Mom -- who has a Master's in early childhood education -- and she told me to start teaching him to recognize simple "sight words," words that every person who can read just recognizes from rote memory, without having to sound out or use context clues to figure out. I looked up "sight words" online and found there were a ton! But my sister, also an educator, told me to focus on the Dolch sight words -- and only on the very, very first level.

So about a month ago I put up this collection of words on the wall in front of their activity table, so they could see it every day.

I put the words up with a different word next to 'my' but had to take it down when Cary said, "Mommy, you forgot 'of'." So I had to write 'of' on a post-it. He now tells me I don't have "he." But I haven't gotten around to getting "he" up there yet.

And every now and then, we'd go over the words. We'd only do a few at a time, and when they got bored, I'd stop. I was really surprised at how quickly they picked up the words, especially Cary. Sometimes, I would even see Cary mouthing the words to himself, on his own. (That boy loves the written word!)

When I talked to Tahira about it, she told me that Cary was ready to start reading and suggested the BOB books. But I looked at them and thought that at 3.5, he just wasn't ready. He can recognize a few words by sight (thus the point of "sight words"), but he can't read. I figured I'd wait until they turned 4.

But last night, we were reading "Green Eggs and Ham," and on a whim, I asked Cary to help me read a couple pages. And I have to say, he did way better than I thought he would, not just recognizing sight words, but remembering the words from (far too) many readings of the book, and also trying to sound some words out. Good ole Dr. Seuss really works!

Not to be outdone, Dean tried his hand at it, too. Bless his heart. :-)

 It is really amazing to see my boys even attempt to read! One of these days, they'll be picking up "Game of Thrones" to read along with me! (At the rate I'm going with Book 2, they might finish the series before I do. Not joking.)

The point is, now I'm considering buying the BOB books, but I'm going to talk to their preschool teachers next week at their parent-teacher conference first. I want to make sure anything I'm doing is helping and not hurting. And I also need tips on how to work with Cary, who is clearly farther ahead than his brother (in this area), without doing any damage to Dean's self-esteem or making him think that reading is "Cary's thing."

Because, really, each of them is doing really great at pre-reading skills, and I'm so, so proud of them both!

*Not sure why these videos aren't working. Grrrr! You'll have to trust me that they're both pretty cute.

Bringing my blog back up-to-date

The last few weeks have been so jam-packed, I haven't had time to properly blog. My goal is to get something down at least five times a week, but that is like a pipe dream, even on the best weeks.

So lots of stuff gets unrecorded, and lots of thoughts get unsaid. But there's nothing to do but to jump right back into it. So here goes.

I'll start with a hodge-podge of things that happened over the course of the last couple weeks or so.

You already saw the kids in their adorable Halloween costumes, but you didn't get to see MOI.

I'm the Queen Bee, y'all. Bzzzz.

Momma Bee went to the boys' school for their Halloween party. While there, I had to be the "kid" and the boys were the teachers. "Sit down, Mommy!" they said. "Criss-cross applesauce!"

Here they are showing me what day of the week it is. I also learned what the weather was. And, if I was very good, I could possibly have gotten to be the line-leader or the door-holder. But I don't remember earning any of those things. I must not have been very good.

Last week, Lester got invited to go to "Thank the elected officials night" at The National Aquarium, even though he's not an elected official. But his boss is, and so we joined him there for a nighttime reception, dolphin show and free rein of the awesome Baltimore aquarium. (If you haven't been, it's really quite nice.)

There were lots of questions about where dolphins go poop (and lots of "ewwwing") and lots of emphatic declarations that jellyfish DO give us jelly, Mommy. "That's why they're called JELLYfish!" Duh.

My favorite is the boysenberry jellyfish. Peach is pretty tasty too.

We got to take home this snapshot of us holding Photoshopped puffins. Cary, who was in no mood to participate with the photographer's requests, was heartbroken when he realized that his pouty refusals to hold his hands out meant he didn't get to 'hold' a puffin when the picture came out. Oh well. Life lesson, Cary. It'll learn ya.

In other news, I'm happy to say, after an October of jam-packed Sundays, we went to the church we like two weekends in a row and pretty much decided we want to join. But first we're going to attend a newcomer's reception this Sunday and ask a few more questions, just to be sure.

I'm excited about possibly joining a church again. But I will be even more glad when Lester and I can both sit in the sanctuary and hear the message together, as opposed to what usually happens: One of us ends up in the lobby with Clair, who refuses to sit still during the lesson and screams bloody murder when we try to leave her in the (very sweet and cute) little nursery. Ugh.

For now, I'll just be happy that we're getting our butts up and getting ourselves to church again. Baby steps, right?

After church last weekend, we ended up going grocery shopping as a family, which we rarely do because hello -- three kids? Wegman's is near the church, so we went there, which was a total blessing! The kids were starving after church, so I took them through the prepared foods section of the grocery store and bought lunch, which we ate upstairs while Lester took the list and shopped.

When the kids were done eating, we just went over and played in the grocery store's children's area until Lester got the car loaded and came back to get us. Easy peasy.

Seriously, whoever came up with the brilliant idea to have a children's area near a dining area, near a bank of bathrooms, upstairs from a huge supermarket -- that person is a bonafide, A No. 1 genius.

We can't afford to shop at Wegman's all the time -- especially when you factor in having to feed the lot of us while we're there, instead of eating lunch at home. But when we have to do it, I'm grateful that we have it as an option. (Also, I made the easiest delicious butternut squash for dinner, thanks to Wegman's handy-dandy "buy a vegetable, we'll dice it for you" service. I love Wegman's!)

And lastly, I have to say how excited I was when Cary came padding into our room yesterday morning (a half-hour before it was time to wake-up, but I'll forgive him) and said, "Look, Mommy." Then, slowly, pointing to each word with his little finger:  'A. Is. For.'"

He read that!

Then he pointed to the alligator and said "Alligator. A. Is For. ALLIGATOR!"

Best 6:15 wake-up call I ever had.

Tomorrow is the end of the soccer season -- there's a parents vs. kids soccer game and a pizza party! Cary and Dean are beside themselves with excitement.

Happy weekend everybody!