Warner Learns How To Read

The other day, Olivia and I were reading a BOB book together and she was doing really well at sounding out all of the phonetic words. She was taking her time at doing this. I didn't even realize he was there but when she wasn't going quite fast enough on the word "sat", I heard a voice behind us say quickly "sssssat!", before she could finish saying it. 

What the heck?  I looked behind us. There was Warner standing up behind us peering out over our shoulders.

When did you learn how to read kid? I thought it was just a coincidence. Maybe he had read the book with his Dad and had just memorized the shape of the word. So I tested him out on a different BOB book right before his nap a few hours later. We cozied in, and I pointed to the first word. He sounded it out slowly, "Ma ma, o o, pu pu. Ma-ma, o o, pu-pu. Ma-o-pu. Mop!" He sounded each word out until he had slowly read "Mop was a big dog". I couldn't believe it. Warner was reading!

I have always wanted books and words to be important in our family, so Jaron and I started reading to Liv every day at a really young age.  We taught her the alphabet while we read her the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". I would point to the letters on the back and on the cover and sing the alphabet song with her.  She learned her alphabet. Then I bought this online homeschool program and taught Liv her letters and the phonetic sounds. We worked on it quite a bit. Then after some starfall time, and more reading, and more reading, finally the reading came along.  All this is to say it has been a very conscientious teaching effort on my part to teach her how to read. 

But Warner has not gotten all of the attention that his oldest sister has, for obvious reasons.  Having two was busier than having one, and then right about when he was the same age that Olivia was when I started teaching her letter sounds, Buster was born. 

Thus we see, as my Mother in-law always says, that if we raise our first child well, then she will raise the rest for us. :) I guess Warner has proven this to be true.

Here is a picture of Warner writing. Once again not something I really sat down and taught him, like I did with Liv. At our family reunion last summer Grandpa Paxman made our kids some name blocks out of wood.  I credit those name blocks for teaching Warner how to write.  He gets them out every couple of days and copies the letters of all of our names.Thank you Grandpa Paxman, and thank you Olivia, and thank you Warner for being an observant little lad.