I knew she knew some sight words, and recognized a few others, but tonight we picked up a book she had never heard that we checked out from the library, and she knew over a quarter of the words in their and sounded out the 2 names! Dh and I were shocked.

And also today she was playing with the magnetic letters on the fridge and had OU....she said "where's the Y? I need it to make YOU" So she's not just recognizing words but was spelling a word....wow.

She seems to be really taking off.

It's fun and a bit scary to have a very early reader. Just continue to allow her to set the pace, and don't stop reading aloud to her! Many early readers go into hiding once they figure out that what they do is unusual. Be cautious of acquaintances and relatives who may make a big deal of her reading.

hth!

That is interesting because I'm not sure how well my dd can read because she does stuff in "secret". Even putting puzzles together is done when no one was looking. A couple of weeks ago, I showed her some fractions on her computer math game and she waited until I left and thought I wasn't looking until she did them on her own and correctly. Fractions like 3/5 and 2/7 (matching the fraction with the baked good that represents the fraction).

She did read the word "again" in a brand new book while we were reading it together several months ago. I think she "slipped"!! LOL

Mr W likes to take the Sunday paper behind the couch and "read" through it away from our observation.

When DS6 was 2, he used to read the signs and menus in restaraunts while we were waiting to be seated. It made for some interesting conversation with fellow eaters.... Nothing like calling huge amounts of attention to yourself!

That's so fun to watch! Enjoy your early reader! You've gotten good advice-
So cool when they unlock that skill and can decode!

Yeah, that's our DS7 when he was 2! There was never any problem with people not believing he could read, because he did it out loud and constantly. Somehow I think that's easier than what a lot of you went through with the secret ones!

Hi , I'm interested in knowing how is she doing now as we seem to be bit behind you

We are in a strange stage where it is hard to say if DD is reading some words or if they are sight word. She seems to have more interest in it if the word is familiar but then she is sounding it out phonetically. I was playing with her fridge magnets and I wrote stop. She came to me and said s-t o-p stop then she saw ri next to each other and said it says r-i ri like in her name (it is correct her name ends with ri). She also "reads" h-at hat, m-at mat and c-at cat. I'm pretty sure she is not really reading the word yet, she is just practicing her phonics with the word she knows. She might read d-ad daddy even if it says dad so there seems to be lot of guessing going on too.

I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that there are many, many things involved in learning to read -- memorization (sight words), sounding out, picking up cues from context and pictures (guessing), etc. -- and kids use all of the tools they have at their disposal to learn. I suspect with a lot of gifted kids, a better-than-average memory has a lot to do with early reading... knowing sight words at such a young age is actually quite an accomplishment.

At 2.5, my DS was recognizing sight words like "cat" and "mommy." Then he started spelling his classmates' names with magnetic letters on the fridge -- names like "Nicholas" and "Shreya" that would be difficult to figure out phonetically. Real reading came quickly after that, by 3 or so, but he didn't do a lot of sounding out... it seemed like his internal catalog of sight words just exploded. Anyway, blah blah blah... I guess I'm just trying to say that I wouldn't play down the importance of memorization in this process.

It's so fun to have an early reader... I love language and literature, so I was THRILLED when my son showed an early interest.

When DS was 3 he was standing by a tabloid in the supermarket, and promptly asked me what a sex change was (the tabloid at the time said Saddam H. had one). Oh, the joys of an early reader!