Learn to Read? Start with What you Like, right?

Tiger Shark, Jackson's favorite

Jackson has been learning sight words at school. They’re up to a handful now, “if”, “a”, “can”, “her”, “all”, “eyes”, there are more, but I can’t remember what the newer ones are. The concept of sight words is confusing to me, though. I don’t recall learning to read that way. I remember learning to read one letter at a time and sounding words out in order to read them… and to me, that is what reading is. If you, as an adult, are reading a book, journal, paper, and come across a word you do not know, what do you do? You sound it out.

So, when Jackson brings home sight words (edited for spelling! ha, a post about reading and I misspelled sight/site), we sit down and go through the letters of the word, spell them out and I make him sound-out the letters… and then when patterns appear between words, that to me, is where “sight” can come into play. If he’s just sounded out the word “cat”, and comes across the word “hat”, then I make him tell me the letters and I show him the previous word that had the same sound and walk him through the sounds of the new word.  I guess this is what you call phonics. I never knew that…. No one told me when I was six that the method used to teach us words and letter sounds was phonics. So, then when the wacky “Hooked On Phonics” infomercials started to come out in the late ’80′s, I had no idea that I myself had learned that way. I thought that they were pushing a method for late readers, as something “new” or a way to “catch up”.

Jackson, coincidentally, started recognizing letters quite early. I remember checking out at the YMCA once years ago after “Mommies Morning Out”, and he was standing at my feet, below the level of the counter, and pointed at the large letters and said “Y!”, gosh how old was he? This was before Josephine existed, and when they were in their old location. AND, if it was Mommies Morning Out, it would have been before I worked at the web-developer, during which time the kids were going to daycare…. SO, that means it must have been within a few months of turning 2 years old. 2 years old! and he was recognizing letters. People often comment on his “smarts”, and I have always thought that he was pretty advanced, but I also have thought to myself, “well, doesn’t everyone think their child is super smart? just like everyone thinks their kid is the cutest?” And throw in the fact that my experience in comparison is with Olivia, and her super slow development.

So, where am I going with this? Well, just to tell you that this morning Jackson was requesting to see pics of some different animals in my lab manuals, and bio text. He was curious about the Post-it Flags that I have placed in them and labeled so that I can turn quickly to the subject I’m trying to find…

a lot of them, I know

So, he had asked about sharks, “mama, can we find the sharks?” So, I showed him the tab that said “Chondrichthyes”… and told him that was the tab for sharks… then he was asking where in my notes, so, again I showed him the tab AND the corresponding lecture notes, with the typed word, “Chondrichthyes”. I separated out the “Chond-” and made him spell it out, then sound it out, until he was saying “chond!” I explained to him “Did you know that when you see that part of the word it means ‘shark’ because sharks’ bones are not bones!?!” and he looked at me funny and I told him that the “chond” meant shark because “chond” means cartilage, and shark skeletons are made from cartilage. Anyway, despite the fact he has no idea what cartilage means, he did get the “chond-” part, and subsequently was able to find the word in other places! I’m so proud of him! So, then we found one of my books, and I said, “okay find the tab that means shark”, and he looked and looked, and ta-da! found it even in my handwriting. super-kid!