Sounding it Out

Ava is ready to start reading... on her own. Few things make her happier than books. As a matter of fact, I think that could it have fit, she would have had one in the womb.

She's been asking me quite frequently lately to help her sound out words. In the last few days, she's been doing it on her own, unassisted. The first word she ever sounded out without Mama-help: POOP! Yep, poop. Of course, we would be the family with a children's book containing the word poop. Despite the word, I was so proud of her for recognizing the double o's and the sound they make. From there, it's just snowballed. As we read books together every day, I'll often stop on a simple word and ask her to sound it out... and she does. There are several words she knows now by recognition (other than all of our names): go, stop, on, off, out, in, the, puppy, love, flour, milk, eggs, etc. But for the most part, she just works really hard to put the sounds together. Today, I wrote "See Jax run" on a piece of paper and she quickly read it to me. The funny thing is, I get so excited when she reads a word, yet she is so unaffected. She'll smile a little but is then ready to move on. I think she just wants to get reading and would like me to stop with all the overly-excited Mommy nonsense.

Andy and I are so proud of our girl and her love of learning, especially reading. I hope she'll be a lifelong reader so that when I'm old and gray she can spend as many hours reading to me, as I've spent reading to her. I'll even let her read me books with the word "poop" in them, if she wants to.