Ready to Read?

I've heard some interesting snip-its come from Tweety Bird that amaze me. He is in essence learning to read - on his own. He watches a lot of Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, and The Letter Factory video.

We picked up The Letter Factory around his birthday last fall. I don't think he watched it three times before he knew all the phonics. He started pointing out letters to me and making their sounds. I was amazed at how easy the video presented it to kids.

Since I showed him how to write his name, Tweety has shown incredible signs of beginning to read. He is starting to recognize how sounds work together. He is constantly saying things like, "Wagon. W-w-wagon."

Two weeks ago, Tweety and I went to breakfast together at McDs. We were eating pancakes, sausage, and eggs. I heard, "P-p-p-pancakes. Mom, pancakes - that starts with P!"

"Wow, you're right Tweety. Pancakes starts with P."

Then a little later. "Eh-eh-E-E-eggs. Eggs, that starts with E."

"You're right Tweety. That's wonderful. Eggs starts with E."

A couple days later, Tweety was playing on the floor with his Lincoln Logs. He spoke up, "Mommy, look. I made an E."

I looked over to see this.

Then just a day or two ago, Tweety was playing with the magnetic letters and desk that my friend Kendra gave him for Christmas. He had spread out the word cards on the floor and I heard him describing the pictures.

"Pig. Pig says, oink, oink. ...Car. Car says, vroom, vroom. ...Sun. The sun comes up in the morning and it goes down..."

He stopped. I interjected... "at night. The sun goes down at night."

"Oh, thanks!" He said, then continued on. "The sun comes up in the morning and goes down at night." He talked about each card there next to him. Then I saw him place a card on the desktop. I turned back to what I was doing. Not a moment later, I did a double-take. I couldn't believe what I heard and then turned around to see.

"Here goes the P. Here goes the I and here goes the G."

Did I really hear that? I thought. Yup. I turned around to see this.

I mentioned my friend Kendra gave him the desk. She teaches reading recovery in a local elementary school. I told her all these things I was hearing lately and she was amazed. She agreed with me that he is on the verge of learning to read and is showing all the beginning steps. I'm stunned. Awed.