[amandaleigh37]

I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in Toddlers. Feel free to move it.

My DS is almost 2 1/2. We plan on homeschooling... and really feel like unschooling will be a good fit with our philosophy. But honestly, at 2, I haven't given it that much thought yet. I've read some John Holt and such, but really my son is so young that I know the most important thing is for him to play, cook with me, do things he enjoys, art, explore, etc. And that's what we do!

We don't have a TV, but got into a bad habit of letting him watch youtube videos in the morning while I took my shower. He loves trains so I set up a playlist for him to watch trains & animal videos. Then one day I read a thread here about the games on starfall & asked if he wanted to try playing a game. He loved it. So now that's what he does while I shower & get dressed, for about 20 min. each day.

He knew all of the letters before this, mainly just because we read so much and he has some letter magnets that he always asked what they were. Well after a few weeks of playing these "games", he now knows all of the letters (uppercase & lowercase) and what sounds they make. I was amazed the other day when he started pointing out letters on a sign to me and said "That's G! G sounds like "guh!" and then I asked him about other letters and sure enough, he knew all the sounds.

I know at this age their memory is really good, and I am in no rush to push him to do ANYTHING. But he is VERY interested in letters now, and trying to read what he sees. He seems like he's just soaking it up and I am just wondering what, if anything, I can do to help him explore this more in a relaxed, fun way. DH and I were both early readers, so while I definitely don't want to push or try to really "teach" him at this point - if he is naturally interested & ready to start putting these things together, I want to make sure he has the opportunities to do so. Does that make sense?

I'm not really too keen on more TV/computer time than he already does... Are there any games (to buy or make) for young children that make use of letters/sounds in a fun way? (I ordered one of these because I thought it was pretty neat

And he can just play with it, no pressure, and if he doesn't like it I'll just put it away for later.) Any helpful links or book recommendations (for me) would be great too if you have them

I wrote this post really fast so I hope I'm making sense. Just wondered if anyone has suggestions for me. My MIL was here the other day and saw him talking about letters & sounds and practically begged us to let her buy him flash cards & a kindergarten reading curriculum... I declined because that is NOT at all what I want to do, especially for a 2 year old. But I don't want him to be bored either

 

[Lillian J]

This post has links to some good past threads on learning to read. And these have a lot of good input as well:
Talk to me about delayed reading instruction, Learning to Read Without Any Teaching, and best way to learn how to read.

Have fun! Lillian

 

[St. Margaret]

We had a really similar experience-- DD learned all the letters just through like the Dr. Seuss ABC book and the bath letters someone gave her, and then she saw me checking out starfall one time and wanted to see the letters, and then she wanted to play it all the time, so we did a little, and gets all the sounds. From reading books together a lot, she has some sight words. But going from that to sounding out words and really reading... I feel like it's a developmentally different step. If you make each sound of a word, one at a time, she'll tell you the word, but that's it. She doesn't go around sounding out words. Well, she does because she loves to PRETEND that she's reading like that, but she mostly just says whatever word that starts with the first letter that she likes.

Anyway, she luckily got tired of starfall and I figure there's not a lot more to do playing around with reading until she's just ready. But we spend a lot of time goofing off making up rhymes, and reading books together. Sorry I'm not more helpful! Right now she's "reading" her new Easter book, telling a little story aloud. I figure that's good prereading for now