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Yesterday he got a letter from Grandma that had many words that rhyme with "cat." He could consistently spell the words, and do individual sounds (rrr, aaa, ttt) but very often would finish with "at." Ex. "b-a-t. bbb. aaa. ttt. bbb at. at!" But one or two he did it all the way (s-a-t. sss. aaa. ttt. sss. at. sat!") He has not yet made the discovery that the word is always the same, ie, he has to sound it out every time. Nor that this list was all "at" words and that once he found the first sound he could just ryhme that with at.
By the way, I mention these details as an observation of the learning process, and because I think my mom will be interested. It is not meant to be a comparison to anyone else, though I guess I will probably be interested in reading back on these posts once Noah is learning these things, too.
Indeed I am interested, thanks! I've never understood why one should have to apologize for observing and noting the learning process any more than other aspects of growth -- but I've been there....
I loved "It was a font thing." Back in my day zeros were distinguished from O's by a slash through them -- and I still write them that way occasionally. In some fonts the numeral on and the lower case "L" are a problem, which is why Janet had to change the url of her blog.
Does he like getting letters he can "read" -- or would he prefer letters you read to him but which say more? Or both?
I think he did sound out "rat" by himself, didn't he?
I think it depends on his mood, or how much reading he has done that day. He wasn't really interested in reading the letter from a week or so ago and stopped after a couple words. So, we ended up reading it to him.
But this last letter he did take more time to read it. I wonder if he didn't like it starting with "Dear", a word he is less familiar with?
Maybe if I start all letters that way, it will become more familiar? But it's only meant to be fun for him, no pressure.
I couldn't remember which words he had gotten (they all run together in my head.)
It is fun for him. He loves opening the envelopes. And having the words be different colors was nice, too.
He was trying to read "Rubbermaid" and "Roughneck" on a toy container, and he insisted that the "o" was a "0" since it had a line through it.
The "line" was the inside of the circle - the lettering is embossed in plastic, so the hole of the O could be seen as a line.
He did partially sound out the "neck" part, though he continues to like to read right-to-left.
He pointed to "Rubbermaid" and asked what it said. When I told him, he thought that was pretty funny: "made out of rubber".
I talked to Mom today about how we learned to read, and Jonathan's "Bob" books are similar to what she did, though she made up her own, which has a couple of benefits:
1. You can insert your own personalized words, like, "Jonathan sat on Noah", instead of "Mat sat. Sam sat. Mat sat on Sam".
2. She didn't use pictures, though it makes it easier for Jonathan to guess what the words say, he is more likely to memorize the picture and sometimes read, "Sam sat." as "Sam sat on the grass".
So, I'll have to try that as well. We do have fun reading together.
I agree that personalization makes it more interesting. and therefore much better. The advantage of something like the Bob books (bear in mind I haven't actually seen them) is making the phonics rules more clear. But at his age, anything and everything goes. I'm not a firm believer in any one system -- unless it be that system which encourages you to take advantage of whatever works from all systems. :)
Glenn Doman also encourages keeping the pictures separate from the words, for just the reason you gave.
Most important: Whatever you have fun with!