my younger son is 2 years 4 months and has mastered recognizing upper and lower case alphabet long time ago, counts objects and reads numbers to 20, knows all the basic shapes, 10 colors, phonetic sounds, "what letter comes next" sort of games ... two weeks ago started sounding out and reading simple words ... so pretty smart little boy, possibly gifted ... yet, he's in speech therapy for what was a serious delay (aside from numbers and letters he only had 10 words at 25 months ... now has probably about 200 words and learning phrases every day rather than simple words) ... and absolutely refuses to hold crayons or even utensils ... developmental therapist agreed with me that he simply isn't interested in the "normal" things and he's just focused elsewhere.
and here comes the question ... obviously he spends all day playing ... but he likes to flip through books, loves the alphabet ... but all the things we have are just too simple for him now and while he started reading, he's limited to just short words for now and more importantly is limited by his for now very small vocab. I have a bunch of pre-K through K curriculum books I got for my almost 4-year old but it's all too boring for him. It's usually pages and pages of worksheets to learn one letter or one number and he knows all these and can't practice writing yet since his fine motorics just isn't there yet
... is there anything else I can give him? I was thinking flash cards but I'd rather stay away from those so he doesn't read sight words yet ... I want him to keep using sounding words out for now. ... even the words he started sounding out last week, after he'd sound them out once or twice (like dog, cat, cow, hat, etc.) ... the next time he'd just glance at them and say them without a second thought. And from what I've read, I prefer the phonics route rather than memorizing words. ... so, what else is out there?
I would love to find something that would have "condensed" curriculum ... pretty much just FACTS without all the practice pages. Does it exist? I've been so desperate I started pulling out some pages out of the books we have and putting them into a binder but even that is just boring. Also, I don't want something where I'd have to "teach" him as I think he's too young for that ... more so something that he could grab and browse through when he's in his learning mode
He loves to do this stuff in the evening before bedtime. That's when he brings me his magnadoodle and wants me to write words for him to read. I have always been the kind of person who said when I have kids, I want them to be kids and not worry about school stuff till they go to school ... but what do I do with a toddler that's learned all this on his own? lol
Oh, and I just downloaded some learning apps onto my Android tablet earlier this week and he loves it! ... especially since he's able to use the touch screen and he isn't as limited as if he had to use a pen / crayon ... but I'd rather have something real ... book or something than have him sit at a computer / tablet for hours a day
