Sumner Learned to Read

Sumner has been fascinated by the alphabet since he was about one and a half.  He knew all his letters, letter sounds, and order of the alphabet long before he turned three.  I remember a week or two after he turned three he recited his alphabet backwards.  It shocked his daddy and I, to say the least.  After that he started learning to sound out words and spell words.  Around that same time I started trying to teach him sight words.  He wasn't nearly as interested in the sight words as other words for some reason... Maybe because they aren't to sound out, its more memorization.

He loves books.  He has for a very long time. Because of his love for books, the alphabet, and his quickness to pick up on reading skills I probably should have started teaching him to read on his own a while ago. It wasn't until I talked with the mother of another little boy in Sumner's class did I make the decision to be intentional about teaching him to read.  She told me about books called "Bob Books" so I ordered the 2nd level.  We sat down with the first book in the set and I helped him sound out the words to read the first page, and the second, and the third... Before I knew it he had read the whole book and wanted to try the second.... Then the third.  By the time we got to the fourth book in the set he didn't need any help at all.  We made it to the fifth book in the set of twelve the first night we started.  Needless to say I am about to order the second set of books. My little boy can read! I couldn't be more thankful for how special he is.