Lily James

Thank you to everyone who's answered my questions about my little person.
It's helpful to hear "just let it go" from people with older children and
more experience. He is an only grandchild to my parents and I think they
worry more about him than they did about me when I was little! :)

Bonni mentioned reading -- yes, I think he's trying to teach himself to
read. He has memorized lots of books (mostly Dr. Seuss) and "reads" them to
himself moving his finger under the words. He's learned a lot of sight words
that way and likes to pick them out when he sees them on signs or on TV or
on the computer. I think he is trying to teach himself to sound things out
-- at least beginning sounds. He saw a violin on TV the other day, for
example, and turned to me and said, "Violin! A violin ducka V!" He uses the
word ducka when he doesn't know how to pronounce or say something. :) But he
does this with lots of words and tries to figure out the beginning sound and
what letter the word starts with from listening to it. He can sound out some
simple words like dog and cup etc. Every time we pull into the driveway he
says Duh-aaawwww-g! and points to the "beware of" sign. :)

I guess I'm just paranoid about pushing him. I was even considering some
sort of alphabet detox for him -- but I'm not going to do that I guess. He
knows all the letters and what sound they make (short vowel and hard
consonant). I think if his goal is to learn to read I'll help him do it...
one of his challenges right now is that he can "read" better than he can
pronounce.

I had been working with him on learning his letters -- we were doing one a
week, but he got way way way ahead of me :) So I guess I felt a little
guilty that maybe I introduced him to this all too soon. I don't know why I
would think that -- at his age I was reading primers and sounding out words.
But I didn't have the same level of intensity and addiction that he has,
according to my parents.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate it. I think this kid
is much smarter than either of his parents :) and I'm sure he'll continue
challenging me as he gets older... it's nice to have people to ask questions
and get opinions. :) He is a humbling experience.

Love,
LILY

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Bonni Sollars

Lily, if you don't mind my saying so, your little guy sounds sooo cute!
Bonni