D-D-D Daddy-o and Emmyyy
disclaimer: dan and i do spend time teaching our children things, but this post makes it look like we don't...
about a month ago, emily came home from mother's day out saying she wanted to watch a video called letter factory. i told her we did not have that one, but maybe the library did. actually, we use the library card with a lot of things. she knows the library closes at night so she accepts that reasoning for why we tell her she can't have something. wrong? yes. helpful in reasoning with a 3 1/2 year old? yes. anyway. this way the library gets to be the bad guy, not us.
so after a few days of her asking to watch it, i decided to look for it. i did not find talking letter factory, but i did find talking word factory. i thought it would be a poor substitue in her opinion, but she loved it. she watched it nearly every waking moment for 7 days. having her like to watch word factory instead of max and ruby was a welcome change. but anyway.
after a week of non-stop word factory went by, the kids and i were waiting for dan to meet us at the auto shop. we beat him there by about 10 minutes, and in those 10 minutes emily kept making strange noises. for the first few minutes i did not pay any attention to her, but then it dawned on me she was trying to sound out the sign on the shop. we were at norman's, and she was saying, n-n-o-o-r...you get it. she got to the end and i asked her what she was doing and she told me she was reading the sign. i asked her who taught her to read signs and she told me tad (he's the main character in word factory). i was impressed. a video taught my daughter how to sound out words, a.k.a. phonics.
when dan got in the minivan i told him what she was doing. he was like, great! but instead of sharing his excitement, i thought the opposite. i thought about it, and i'm 7 1/2 months pregnant, we have our house for sale and i have a clingy almost 2 year old. i don't have TIME to sit down with her and finish what tad started. so now emily walks around most of the day sounding out words and telling me things like, mom, i'm c-c-cold. mom, cold starts with c! we already can't say we taught her how to write her name - she her magna doodle and aqua doodle taught her that, dora has taught her spanish words even i don't know, and now thanks to a video she's a few months away from reading. week before last she came home and said they'd watched number factory at school. dang!! if she starts doing math before the end of MDO, i'm going to take her to have to take her to sylvan this summer.
on to ethan.
last week ethan began to say emily's name. for a couple of months he called her sister, and you could only tell that's what he was saying if he was pointing at her. one day i heard him calling for her - saying, emmmyyyy! emmmyyy! i was so excited! he finally is beginning to use words we can understand. his vocuabluary has exploded, and he's quite happy about it. he'll walk around pointing to things and saying what they are. i was afraid he'd never learn to talk!
so there is a lot of talking and reading going on in our house these days. it's a fun thing to watch your child learn new things and be impressed with themselves. we've even caught emily awake in her bed an hour after we put her down "reading" her books. she'll go to bed sometimes with a stack of books and tell us she has to read them all before she can go to sleep. this stage in her life is fun.
about a month ago, emily came home from mother's day out saying she wanted to watch a video called letter factory. i told her we did not have that one, but maybe the library did. actually, we use the library card with a lot of things. she knows the library closes at night so she accepts that reasoning for why we tell her she can't have something. wrong? yes. helpful in reasoning with a 3 1/2 year old? yes. anyway. this way the library gets to be the bad guy, not us.
so after a few days of her asking to watch it, i decided to look for it. i did not find talking letter factory, but i did find talking word factory. i thought it would be a poor substitue in her opinion, but she loved it. she watched it nearly every waking moment for 7 days. having her like to watch word factory instead of max and ruby was a welcome change. but anyway.
after a week of non-stop word factory went by, the kids and i were waiting for dan to meet us at the auto shop. we beat him there by about 10 minutes, and in those 10 minutes emily kept making strange noises. for the first few minutes i did not pay any attention to her, but then it dawned on me she was trying to sound out the sign on the shop. we were at norman's, and she was saying, n-n-o-o-r...you get it. she got to the end and i asked her what she was doing and she told me she was reading the sign. i asked her who taught her to read signs and she told me tad (he's the main character in word factory). i was impressed. a video taught my daughter how to sound out words, a.k.a. phonics.
when dan got in the minivan i told him what she was doing. he was like, great! but instead of sharing his excitement, i thought the opposite. i thought about it, and i'm 7 1/2 months pregnant, we have our house for sale and i have a clingy almost 2 year old. i don't have TIME to sit down with her and finish what tad started. so now emily walks around most of the day sounding out words and telling me things like, mom, i'm c-c-cold. mom, cold starts with c! we already can't say we taught her how to write her name - she her magna doodle and aqua doodle taught her that, dora has taught her spanish words even i don't know, and now thanks to a video she's a few months away from reading. week before last she came home and said they'd watched number factory at school. dang!! if she starts doing math before the end of MDO, i'm going to take her to have to take her to sylvan this summer.
on to ethan.
last week ethan began to say emily's name. for a couple of months he called her sister, and you could only tell that's what he was saying if he was pointing at her. one day i heard him calling for her - saying, emmmyyyy! emmmyyy! i was so excited! he finally is beginning to use words we can understand. his vocuabluary has exploded, and he's quite happy about it. he'll walk around pointing to things and saying what they are. i was afraid he'd never learn to talk!
so there is a lot of talking and reading going on in our house these days. it's a fun thing to watch your child learn new things and be impressed with themselves. we've even caught emily awake in her bed an hour after we put her down "reading" her books. she'll go to bed sometimes with a stack of books and tell us she has to read them all before she can go to sleep. this stage in her life is fun.
posted by Michelle at 12:50 PM
9 Comments:
first of all i think it's funny that some of us have started putting disclaimers on our blogs. i've gotta find something to disclaim for my next post...i also laughed out loud with your confessions of your hired tutors...magna doodle and dora. your posts about your kids make me smile!
The girls love the Letter Factory. I don't think there is anything wrong with Tad helping with some of the teaching. We will have to check out the word factory!
How fun that Ethan is talking more. I can't wait for Sarah to learn some new words. I'm tired of trying to guess what she wants.
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That story was too funny!! And hey...just take the credit!!!
i, too, laughed at the disclaimer! how funny! a good mom, i think, uses all available tools to help her children read...
I told you to be weary of Texas. Now you see what you get! Kids reading and counting. Stop the insanity!
Luckily, here in Louisiana, my son thinks that every word that starts with C is his name. He'll be the next governor.
I haven't heard of the Letter Factory, but I'll have to check into it. Stone's vocabulary has exploded as well...and you're right - it is fun!!
surely, aubry is joking...this about the kid who point blank asked his dad if he enjoyed working at centurytel the other night. dude, aubry's kid thinks everything that starts with a "c" is his name because he's a child genius. i'm for real...
what's the latest on the house?
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