The thing is that before becoming a stay at home mom I taught for 9 years. Not only did I teach, but I taught mostly early literacy skills to hundreds of kids. The ones that still couldn't learn their letters were sent to me for one on one time. Now I think most people that knew teacher Lindsey would have expected my Cole to be reading by now for sure and guess what... he is not even close. In fact he in his words, "Does not like letters or numbers and will not be working on them." Gasp! I really subscribed to the philosophy that they will learn the letters when it is developmentally appropriate and that exposure to good literature and good verbal communication is all they need. Cole hit 3 and 1/2 and really was not consistent with his letters and I hit the panic button big time. So we made picture cards and got a DVD called the Letter Factory and in two weeks he knew the upper and lower case letters and their sounds pretty well. I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to subscribing to my old philosophy of he'll learn when he is ready. Doesn't mean I don't let me heart skip a beat still when he calls a K an H, I can't help it!
As for the baby, she can't read but she does a swell job of feeding the dog and really that is more helpful around here!
My brother had the DVD's- and like he said- "If his 2 yr old had the need to say hippopotamus- she would know how to say it" other wise it was just something for her to watch.
ReplyDeleteIt really all depends on how much time you spend with your kids reading to them... Like you said- you can do it yourself cheaper.