Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The ultimate brag thread

nice! ... just wondering, why would you want to avoid the letters in order to learn phonics later??? DS3 started to be really interested in alphabet around 15-18 months. He would bring me these plastic letters, stick them in my face and wait for me to say the sound (the first letter he learned was W and it remains his favorite to this day). And since this game got boring for ME I started telling him "whatever letter" makes the "whatever sound". He knew the alphabet by about 20 months and most phonetic sounds and had all the upper and lower case letters and the sounds down perfect by the time he was about 22-23 months old. All it took was this little game and watching Leapfrog videos. At 2 years and 4 months he started spontaneously phonetically read words. FUN times

Fun, reflecting back on when they actually knew something.

I'll be curious to see how reflection works in XX years to see if DS7's plans come through as he mentioned over the weekend:
"I want to learn calculus so I can get a doctorate in mathematics and be a professor."
Me: "Well there are other things you can do with a doctorate in math. Like make big money on Wall Street."
Him: "Really? How much are we talking about?"

Fair question!

I read spontaneously when I was 2 and my parents had stuck with phonetic letters when I asked for "decoding". I figured the approach had facilitated early reading because it avoided confusion over distinguishing between two sets of labels. My thinking was that using the same approach would allow my son to just jump from phonetics to sounding out the words on his own when he was ready.

Apparently that was all moot, since the method doesn't seem to be the causative factor.

We have some magnetic letters, too, but he's never shown an interest in them, other than as debris when he plays with his construction vehicles. Maybe they were purchased after he knew the alphabet already...? (Or, maybe, in my refusal to use the letter names, he thought I was illiterate! Ha!)

DS4.5 has been playing with our digital thermometer (one of those that you run across the forehead and it scans the temperature) and asked me what the little "." in the number meant so I explained that he needs to read it as "number point number". So he goes to check his stuffed giraffe's temperature, reads it out loud (74 point 8) and then goes to another animal and checks it's temperature, says (74 point 2) ... and then says ... "oh no! My giraffe's temperature is higher! Maybe he's sick!"

couple weeks ago we had a parent teacher conference and his teacher was proudly telling me how he recognizes numbers 1-10 well and is right on target where he should be. Might be time to make things little more challenging for him to see what he REALLY recognizes? lol

DD learned letter names first because we were just caught off guard. Then she learned the alphabet song. Then she became obsessed with phonics. When she went to preschool she had trouble because the teachers thought it was funny that she called the letter names by their sound. This year (preK) they have been doing a letter of the week and that seems to have helped, but she still will occasionally identify a letter by its sound. Thankfully, she already knows how to read.

That is all to say you might have very little control and either way it can be a little hairy.

DD4.5 was accepted to a great private school that looks to be a wonderful fit for her. I am so excited for her to begin there. They have so much to offer her.

On a trip recently we brought a bag of thickish chapter-y type books. She spent nearly the entire time on the plane (4 legs) reading--Mercy Watsons, Mouse and Moles, Franklins, a Rainbow Magic and more--for pleasure. She went through the entire bag. (Meanwhile, DH and I played games on our smart devices.) We have been checking out fifty books at a time, and I love finding her with a new book, her finger tracing the lines while her lips move silently.

She also figured out negative numbers all on her own (with the help of a giant number line on the floor of our children's museum I think.) While waiting in security, she asked what was 8 minus 10? I took a deep breath. "Well, that is tricky..."

DD: "It is negative two, right?"

Me: "How did you know that?"

DD: "8 minus 8 is 0, take away two more is negative one, negative two."

She did the same thing with adding fractions. "Did you know 3 halves are more than a whole? and 5 quarters? 6 quarter equals one and a half."

She has also been really poetic recently. She will make up 6 or so lines of poetry at a time. And, she loves word play. "It says 'KEEP OUT'--I am creeped out!"

ellemenope, I don't know what the etiquette on this thread is regarding replies to posts, but I want to shout out "hooray!!" when I hear about wonderful children like your daughter. That's impressive and heartwarming to hear how much she loves learning.

Thanks, aquinas. That is our goal. It is like the stack of fifty library books. It may be that only twenty really suit her fancy each week. She can choose what she likes.--We just provide her with lots of opportunity to learn and see what she chooses to enjoy.

I love how you cheer for everyone :)))

Thanks MK! I get so excited for these impressive children (and their proud parents!) especially when they're so joyful about learning!

But...enough from me.