he is 4 so at this point its really just play but its his way or no way. it was so much easier with my daughter and when she does school work he sits in and watches or tries to help but again its his way or no way. For example we were playing a letter puzzle the other day and he was taking random letters and asking what it spelled and i said nothing. jahsud is not a word. i offered to teach him some basic words. i put "an" together and told him it spelled an and he said i was lying. now he knows his letters, most of the letter sounds, numbers and how to write his name as well as all the baby stuff like animal sounds, shapes etc. he learned this stuff on his own. i dont push lessons at this age but i think hes ready to move into some basic stuff. he will be 5 in april and will have to at some point do school work. even my 8 yr old is mainly play n reading we dont do worksheets and things so its all fun stuff but when the boy insist im wrong n he is write i dont know what to do with him.

Tell him that he isn't allowed to say those words during game time and you won't either. He's saying you're wrong because you told him he was wrong. It's a power struggle, now. yuck! Boys mature a little slower than girls. My son would do the same things.
Reading is basically just putting the sounds together right? Next time, tell him what he spelled. If he asks if it's a word say, not in English. Take turns makings up funny definitions for it. He won't go to college thinking GHJUYT is a word but his phonics well be awesome! lol

what mem said.... :)
DD does just what she said. She will put random letters in a line & ask me "whats this word" so i will sound it out & shewill either giggle or ask "is that a word" & i either say no.. or say something like "well if it is its awefully silly isnt it!?"... If I see a real word in her letters I may point them out as well.


I agree with the pp's. Have fun with it. My daughter (4 in July) puts random letters together too but she tends to have lots of consonants and no vowels so I can't help her sound it out or anything. When she does do a combination that can be pronounced, I have HER sound it out and tell me what it says... then she is reading her own writing! She is writing a story right now for which she already did the illustrations and it was SO fun to her when I told her that SHE was the author and illustrator... she is thrilled to be able to make this up and put it on paper! Her story makes sense so far too. All I can expect of her at this point is about 2 sentences a day every few days so as not to overwhelm her but she does that and does it great!
- hailnbray
on Sep. 30, 2011 at 5:01 PM