Phonics with Lily

Lily and I are working our way through a phonics book. I try to do a couple of pages with her every day. So far she's really enjoying it.

This evening we were doing a page that had a chart listing 4 letters and beside each letter a row of 4 words that contained that letter. The idea is the child finds the letter that appears at the start of the row. This is where Lily started reading at home. So she started sounding out the words on the page. After she recognizes each word, I ask her what it is, and her answers were fascinating to me, so I started writing them down. Here they are:

Job: It's something you have to do.

Jet: A fast plane with fire coming out it's back. It goes ZOOOOM! (with hand motion)

Jog: She didn't know. I asked her if she remembered seeing people out exercising and running slowly and demonstrated jogging to her.

Kid: A child that parents have.

Kit: Like a doctor kit.

Back: She showed me her back.

Kick: When you kick a ball (made a kick motion with her leg).

Log: A big tree stump or branch. I asked her if it was in the air or on the ground and she said on the ground.

Hill: A big lump in the ground.

Leg: Showed me. It's what helps people walk.

Milk: A white drink. I asked her where do we get it from. She replied Superstore! I asked her what animal, and she replied a cow.

I was impressed she'd sounded out milk because up until now we've only been doing words with three distinct sounds. So I said "Wow, that's a tricky one!" And she said, "Yeah, but I knew it because I'm FOUR YEARS OLD!"

Videos: Lily starts to read

These videos were taken at the end of January one evening when we sat doing some phonics pages together and she started sounding out words and having an absolutely BLAST.

This is such an incredible time for her, and for me. I love to read. I love being surrounded by books. The kids and I love going to the library and sitting in the kids' section picking out and browsing through the books for as long as we can stay... I can't put to words how thrilled I am that she is having such a great time learning to read. The learning to talk phase was my favourite phase up until now. But watching her realize after each word what she has just done and what she CAN do, it's just... incredible.

LILY IS READING

Lily brought home her first reader from school today, a 16-page book called The Tin Man. She pulled it out this evening and read THE ENTIRE BOOK to me over the course of about an hour. The word "the" tripped her up the most, but then she got that it is more of a sight word rather than one that can be properly sounded out. By the end of the book she was recognizing a bunch of words by sight!!!

I am SO SO SO SO SO SO PROUD of you, Lily!!!

When she finished it, this is what she said: "I read the whole book! And we can read it again tomorrow!!" (This at over an hour past her bedtime...!)

Wow. What a great day! (It also happens to be our 5th wedding anniversary. :)

Lily is starting to READ!

Yesterday as we were in the elevator, Lily was looking at the button panel and saw the stop switch. Above the switch it says "Stop" and below it says "Off". She read both of those words! She may have already known the "Stop", but she sounded out "Off" and then put the letters together. WOW! This morning I wrote and she sounded out Cat, Dog, On and Off.

I'm so proud I could burst!

{this moment}

- A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Wishing you a lovely weekend!

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A proud moment for me

Last night I went back in to the kids' room after putting them to bed and caught Lukasz grabbing a Berenstain Bear book and bringing it in to bed with him. Flashbacks to my own childhood. I used to hide them under my pillow.

January in a nutshell

In an attempt to catch up a bit on this blog, once my favourite place online, but now sadly neglected, here is a photo summary of January, birthdays not included (Uncle Derek's and Lukasz's). Those deserve a post all their own.

January was rainy, unlike last winter when it was snowy. I think this year snow might have been preferred, or at least would have been more fun. But we did manage to dodge the raindrops and get out quite a bit, or went out despite the rain just to get some exercise and fresh air.

Here are the kids with their funky toques, handknit by our Great Aunt Mary. :)





There were many days spent indoors, and I despised darkness arriving at 4:30... but I managed to think up a variety of things for us to do each day so it mostly wasn't too tedious.








Lukasz somehow came down with croup, which was a little scary. Poor guy had trouble breathing at times and that meant two late-night trips to the hospital where he got steroids and nebulizers and had a generally unpleasant time.



Lily is turning into quite the little lady. She loves to dress up, dance and pretend to be a princess ballerina. (See below.)



Painting was a popular activity this winter; I have stacks and stacks of paintings by the kids that I'm holding on to.



Lukasz seemed to be sick for a good bit during January, so when sleep finally came on those evenings, it was a relief for all of us.







Sick or not, he is VERY busy growing up just as quickly as he can.



Lily has turned into a little bookworm (they both have, actually) which I love to see. And there's something about hunkering down on the floor with the kids and a ton of books...








Lily still has an afternoon nap most days. She's started to fight it, but we have a little ritual where when I see her getting tired, we will take a couple of books to the "big" bed (while Lukasz is napping) and read them, then I will sing her whichever songs she wants, and then she generally rolls over and falls asleep. But I have to lie there with her, which led to me having a LOT of naps as well.



There always seemed to be blue sky on the horizon, just not much right above us.



Some indoor camping was another fun way to pass time on a long rainy afternoon...



... that, and trying to drive a truck that was clearly a few sizes too small...





If the rain stopped on the weekends we tried to get out geocaching. This is our family hobby and we love it. It gets us outside, it gets us to different areas near where we live, mostly parks, that we had no idea were there, and it's a treasure hunt which makes it fun for the kids, too.





Lily being a cat:



Whenever he puts on shades, he puts them on upsidedown. Not sure what that's about. :)



Made it to Como Lake park a couple of times, too, to see the ducks, play at the park and get some exercise, some of which the kids made up as we went along....









Mostly it was a sleepy month, but Olympic excitement was just around the corner!

Lily reads to me.

This afternoon Lily and I were reading her ABC, 123, Colours & Shapes books and she started reading it to me, pointing to different objects and telling me what they were: ice cream, juice, a king, a lemon, a motorcycle, etc.

When she got to this picture, she didn't miss a beat, informing me that it is "a picking-the-nose".

Lily reads!

Lily and I are colouring with markers, and I wrote "LILY" on the paper and she said "Lily!", so I wrote "MOMMY" on the paper and asked her what it is. She said "Mommy!". Then I wrote "TATUS" and asked her what it is. Her reply? "TATUS!!!!"

My little girl is learning to read already! I'm so proud. :)

Our little bookworm