The post is brought to you with pride and anxiety. Lil H seems to be having a huge development spurt. Maybe it’s been more gradual than this, may be with the uber fast developments going on with his one year old little sis, add work to that too I haven’t spotted earlier signs. That mummy guilt thing is never far away is it?
My little boy will be four years old in April. At Christmas his drawings were scribbles by the end of the first week of January he was drawing faces with eyes, pupils, smiles, arms & legs (no body though a modernist head on legs!). Fast forward to the end of the second week of January and he’s writing his name, well ish, a bit up, down and back to front in places but undeniably his name, not least because he’ll tell you “that’s my name, I’m writing my name.”
This weekend he told me he wanted to read, just like that, out of nowhere “I want to read books and I can’t”. I’m a very organised sort of person, the children have clothes waiting for them to grow into, their Christmas & birthday lists bring the toys & games to cater to their developing play tastes. However this academic request caught me unaware. Not for the first, or the last time, I was cut a drift of the parental sea of “no clue what to do”.
Earlier in the week I clocked an ad for “Reading Eggs” and logged it in my memory banks to check out, a quick dig through the pile of magazines and I found the ad, the website and the code (UKM88BAB) for the free month trial *phew* hoping it was going to be alright we registered and Lil H started his first lesson. He really enjoyed the lessons, gained coins and shopping for rewards in the shop. Its great in that he likes it, its phonetically sound but he’s not even 4 years old and the computer and mouse skills demanded in some of the later lessons did cause frustration and need some help from me. I think we probably will buy a subscription when our free month expires simply because it has helped and Lil H enjoys it and *cough* *whispers* its not Angry Birds on my iPad or iPhone!
Now we are at the point where he is on the hunt for letters he knows – its a long journey anywhere when we have to look at every number plate for a “Huh for Hugo” a “Mmm for Mummy” or a “Ssss for snake” but no question it has dealt with his desire to read, frustration at clearly wanting to learn and bought me sometime to make a plan.
I’m not keen on too much screen time – but he sees me with a laptop an iPhone an iPad so it understandable he is interested. Lets face it technology is only advancing. But I want an offline plan, tools, support. I have told his pre-school he’s keen to read, he’s always keen to “do reading on the laptop” (super, another user in the house!) I’ve now bought and am reading Read at Home: Helping Your Child to Read Handbook (Read at Home Handbook)
What did you do when your smalls wanted to learn to read? How did you teach them? What’s next – writing? Time? Maths? We seem to increasingly moving from toys and playing to learning. Whilst I’m proud and delighted I’m also a little bit sad that my little baby is truly no more.
Love Me – from the sea of “no clue what to do” x
P.s. For the purposes of clarity, this isn’t a sponsored post – this is just new news from Lancaster Towers!
