I See Sam Eat Feet

I'm excited. So excited, that I'm staying up past my bedtime (9:00) to blog about how excited I am. Some of you may read this and think I'm either: A. lying B. exaggerating or C.both. But you'd be wrong!

Tonight, Taylor read a 5 word sentence BY HERSELF!!!! The sentence was...wait for it.....,"I see Sam eat feet." And keep in mind, she did this on her own. All I did was point to each sound while she said it.

Taylor has always loved books. I have pictures of her in diapers, on her rocking chair, reading books. And at 2 1/2 she knew all her letter sounds. Thanks in part to a wooden puzzle that had letter pieces, with a picture underneath of a word that started with that sound. So I asked a friend with five kids how she taught her children to read. She suggested I buy a book called "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons." I ran out and bought it. Taylor was only 3 at the time, so I didn't start right away. I just broke it out two months ago when Taylor told me she was bored learning letter sounds all over again in preschool.

We do a reading lesson every evening at 7 o'clock for about 15 minutes. We use her doodle board, and I follow the lessons in the book. I actually have to study up ahead of time, so I'm not reading out of the book word for word. I read the lesson while she's in the bath, and we do it together when she's in her jammies. I've been very consistent with it. And it's fun! She sounds out the word ear and I tell her a funny story about an ear, or she draws one. She picks it up so fast and what's even better is that she retains it!

Tonight we showed Wes what Taylor could read. Daddy, who was sort of skeptical when I told him about all this, couldn't believe it. After she read one sentence, he made me write another just to make sure it was legit. That Taylor wasn't memorizing anything. So we did 3 or 4 sentences, and he was blown away.

I wrote a list of words below that Tay can read. If you string them together in a sentence, it doesn't throw her at all. She actually loves it! Especially the silly sentences. I'm so thrilled to see the light go on in that little head of hers!

Words Taylor Can Read:
at words- cat, mat, fat, rat, pat, sat, hat, bat, at, Pat
ee/ea words- bee, see, me, he, we, sea, tea, ear, eat, seat, heat, meat, read, feet
am words- sam, ham, bam, ram
ad words- mad, sad, had, bad