Weekend or "ball"room blitz!

So, We played a game where I asked Mason to find things that started with a letter again. We did only a through E, but that is ok. We also added "Cow" to our repertoire of words because I found a card that had the word on it. It seemed like a good idea.

I also spent some extra time reading a book with Zander, he really enjoys story time with me. I try to make it fun, and be silly, which is great for my health. I think that being silly is just as important as breathing air and drinking water.

Today, we had a real show of my efforts. It was such a big deal I actually shouted with delight. We have been practicing a few words here and there, though only focusing on "cup" "ball" "daddy" Zander" "drink" and "cow".

So, I set a bucket of cheese balls down for the boys to snack on today. Mason pointed to the words on it and I asked him what it said. He was not really into answering me, and didn't really read it. He did recognize the letters, however, because he turned to look at the same word written on a piece of paper on the door. Just for kicks, I turned to Zander, pointed to the word "Balls" and asked him what it said. He looked at it and after a second said "Balls". I shouted with delight, as I mentioned. I was so proud. He knew what it meant. He could "read" it. He is only 18 months old. Imagine how he will do in a year? 2 years? I am really looking forward to learning with these boys.


I can't recall if I had mentioned something, and wanted to be sure I did. My boys use sign langauge in addition to spoken word. All of the words i am teaching them to read, they either knwo the sign language for or I teach that in addition. I learned about baby sign language when Mason was about 2 months old, but did not put any stock in it. At 13 months old, Mason had a speech delay for no apparent reason. his hearing was tested and was fine. he did not appear to have a learning disorder or behavior problem. At 14 months old, Mason could only truly say one word- Dadda. Many people said I was overreacting. They said he would talk when he was ready. But I wanted to help him. I called early intervention. They showed me how to play with a child in a way that boosts speech learning and development. And they showed me resources to teach him sign language.

It took about 2 weeks to see progress with the sign language at his age. But once he started, he blew me away! He signed more than he could talk, and impressed even early intervention. Soon, his speech started happening. And it never slowed. now, at 2.5, He knows at least 100 signs, and speaks very well. Zander did not have any delay, but I saw no reason not to teach him to sign before his words became clear. Now, he speaks very well for his age group, and knows around 20+ signs.

The best part, they both enjoy sign language. they use the signs in every day life without thinking, and enjoy learning new ones. We have the "Baby Einsteins: First Signs" movie and it is still thier favorite...they could watch it 20 times a day, I swear.

I am way too busy to write everything on my mind tonight, so I am going to stop here.

Leave me a comment if you are interested in learning how to boost your baby's first words through play. This can be done even with a newborn!

Your baby can read- experiment....

I have been so busy it's hard to find time to post!
But, I had to update more on my progress with teaching the boys to read.

I will talk about Zander (18 months old) first, since it's simpler- He is memorizing the words well. I am playing games with him to encourage him to find the word, which has been rewarding for both of us, and he doesn't even know he is learning. For example, I will ask Zander to show me where it says "Cup" and he will show me where the word is on the door. If I write the word cup, and show him, asking what word is it? he will say cup. He can do this with a handful of words so far. I am tempted to push it and add more, but I think it's time to teach him the way I am teaching Mason, because he listens to me teaching Mason and copies the sounds we make.

Mason has risen to the experience with a great attitude. He likes letters. We start by singing the alphabet, and then we play a game. I am doing a few different games, so we aren't doing the exact same thing over and over, even though the lessons are the same. Today, we will sing the alphabet, and then pick 2 or 3 letters. we will draw them together and make songs about the sounds. For example, if we pick "B" we will make the "b" sound to the tune of twinkle little star (a favorite of Mason's when he was a baby). For letters that have more than one sound, I improvise. Mason has done well with that, too. Another game we played, as a way of taking a break from "teaching" and "learning" and turn it into more playing, I grabbed my camera and encouraged Mason to find things that started with certain letters, and then we took pictures. Arm, Ball, Cup, Door, and Eeeewwww were photogenic enough to be a funny game that showed Mason that things have names, and names are made up of letters.

So where is Mason at? he knows the entire alphabet and can sound out the majority of the sounds. so a 2 letter word is easy peasy...a 3 letter word is possible with patience.


A quick side note, i myself visited the Dr and am getting my health back in tip top. I am pleased with how it went and am feeling like I am well on my way to being normal again.

Experiment, Day 2. (and some other stuff)

I never got back on to post again last night. Fortunatly, it's because I got so busy. I got plenty of cleaning done, and did playtime with the boys and such. Isabella kept my hands full until I put her in the sling on my hip, and washed dishes one handed. It was not the best time of my life, but at least my dishes are done, and all of my laundry, and my living room is looking pretty good. That is a big deal, considering I didn't feel up to anything at all.

And how will I motivate today? I am so tired, I stayed up with Mitchell to watch a show last night and I should have known better, almost as soon as my head hit the pillow Mason started having a rough night. I don't blame him, though. Mason fell asleep in the living room watching tv last night, and As i have previously mentioned, this causes restless sleep. So he woke up and couldn't quite fall back asleep deeply enough. the positive note to it was I had placed the potty chair in the nursery with htem last night and Mason got up and used it, and so was dry this morning.This is not the first night he stayed dry. I am proud of him, I really think he will be dry every night in a few weeks.

Hehe I can see this post is going to take a while to write, since my little ones are needing me.

So, got my coffee and they have thier breakfast, let's add some more.

Last night we ordered oriental food. The place near our house has great food, and reasonable prices. And of course, we got fortune cookies. My fortune cookie said "You will maintain good health and enjoy life". Well, that is terribly presumptuous. how can I maintain good health if I don't have it to maintain? Perhaps it was a nod to the fact that I made an appointment with a new Doctor to sort out my depression, my "seizures" and my back/hip pain. We shall see.

Mitchell's fortune pleased me, it said "You should be able to undertake and complete anything" So immediatly I said we should switch bedrooms with the kids. this has been brewing in my brain for a while, because I think Mason is frightened at night by our inconsiderate neighbors, and the kids can't hear them in our room. Also the nursery has two closets that we use for storage, perhaps we can let them use the big closet in our room for toys and clothes, freeing up more space to play. Mitch gave me a few reasonalbe conditions, and agreed, though not all that happy at the job. he asked that I clean the room and box things up to make the move easy. Fair enough!

So, moving on to the "Your baby can read" experiment. I spent the day trying to get each child to remember what each of the two words were. I was astonished when Zander (18 months old) did better at naming the word than Mason (2.5 years old).

Zander took the word as a shape with a familiar name. I told him a few times that the shapes I pointed at were "Ball" and "Cup" and it was as simple as that for him. There were pictures of a ball and of a cup, which Zander named, but did not really seem to connect with the word until closer to the end of the day. Even still, I don't think he related them the way a person who reads does. I want to use the metaphor Mitchell came up with last night when we discussed the results. Zander sees words as one shape, like a person might see a house as just a house, just a square with a triangle on top. It's just a thing with a name. Once he becomes familiar with the hosue from this aspect, meaning once he learns to remember a few words, I will then teach him how the words have "parts" and each part has a sound (This is the phonetic part) and it will be like learning how a house has studs, beams, trusses, etc. He will be able to understand the relationship between parts of words to sounds, and have the benefit of knowing some words in advance. So he is learning to read BOTH ways, both visually and phonetically. I am still not sure this is the "right" way, but it's an experiment, so we will see what happens.

For Mason, it was a different story. Mason already knows his alphabet and many phonetic sounds. So, learning to recognize words is pointless. He sees them as seperated by each letter. Furthermore, when he saw the cup, he thought "drink" and so thought the word that followed was "drink" until i gently corrected him. So, I have decided to experiment differently today. I have decided to continue to show him the words 'cup' and 'ball' but to show him how each letter has it's own sound, and get him to repeat teh sounds the letters make. So, in short, teach him the phonetic sounds for those words.

I am going to allow Zander to at least observe me teaching Mason and participate if he wants, to see if he picks up on it.

HEHE Wouldn't you know! While I was typing, Mason decided to 'help'. He said "What words?" and I turned to look and he pointed to "Ball" and said "ball" and then pointed to "cup" and said "cup". Hmmmm.........

I still think I will go about things as planned, but not until the afternoon. I am going to test the boys, so to speak, to see if they remember anything from yesterday. I am curious if Mason will forget and revert to saying 'drink' instead of 'cup'.

EXPERIMENT; Your Baby Can Read!

Today Mitchell is working until dinner time. Yesterday was unproductive; I didn't get anything done at all. Today probably won't be much different, despite the ever increasing number of things I need to do today. I DO plan on posting twice today, but I also want to fill out our health insurance paperwork, get more laundry done, wash the dishes, and vacuum. We will see what gets done. I have a project I want to try.



I wanted to say a few things about this program called "Your baby can read". Are you wondering if this idea works? Well, it probably does for many kids. But I would think the way your child learns affects whether this would work or not. Check out "Yourbabycanread.com".



So, I have decided to work really hard to teach Mason (age 2.5) and Zander (age 1.5) to "read" some words. The two boys learn differently, and have different strengths, phonically. Zander talks well for his age group, and learns from repetition. Mason had a speech delay (though is now caught up to his peers) and learns better from physical/visual examples.



So, today I will post piece of paper on the door (it's in the center of the living room) with two words on it. I will point to the words several times throughout the day and say the words while making good eye contact with each child. I will also show them pictures or the actual objects.



At the end of the day, I will ask Mason what each word is. I will ask Zander to show me what the word is, for example, by placing the object near one of the words.



The idea behind this is that they learn to recognize the shape of the word, because this is how reading begins. They recognize letters, shape of words, etc. until it starts making sense that the word is actually made up of different letters (separating the letters in a big word is too complicated for a child under 3, in my opinion) and every couple of days we will choose a letter to practice the sounds of, so when we are ready to sound out words, they will know what sounds the letters make.



If I make progress, I will also be buying the "your baby can read" system. Why not? I am a firm believer that early reading makes education easier. I was an early reader. I could read before kindergarten and could read better than the majority of my peers. This made school easier for me, and I still enjoy reading (though I mostly like to read junk, lol). The fact that I can read and retain information from reading so well made college a great deal easier, too.





I have chosen to begin with the words "Ball" and "Cup". We will also go over the "b" sounds, since it begins one of our words. I will post about how this goes as much as I can. I have a feeling this will work, because I have experienced teaching Joey (now age 10) to read, and he is in 4th grade, reading at a 7th grade level. He loves to read. We did something very similar to this. He was around 3 years old, and I would pick a sentence out of his favorite book and we would practice it, until he had memorized the whole book. Then I took words form those sentences and made games from them. I will do that, too, but I don't want to overwhelm my toddlers. Let's just see how each kid does with this.