His older sister learned to read using Bob Books at home and at preschool beginning at age 4. His parents read to him every night. Occasionally, when she feels like it, his sister (now age 7) reads to him as well. He loves to “play” with books, as evidenced by his stash of board books with broken bindings and teeth marks around the corners. Is he reading? Not yet. Is he excited about books and reading? You bet. Meet Wilson, age 2.5, our newest reader in training.
Over the course of the next several months we will be following young Wilson’s progress as an emerging reader.
In my previous life (as in, before kids) I spent many years as a children’s media editor and producer. Now I juggle parenting, family and a freelance consulting business (although not necessarily in that order.) I will submit guest blogs every other week, keeping you up-to-date on Wilson and his forays into early literacy.
Just to give you a baseline starting point, here are some of the things that Wilson is doing now:
- Throwing books (plus, um, some occasional hitting and biting as well)
- Pointing at pictures (“look at that BIG truuuck!”)
- Recognizing a few colors
- Beginning to learn shapes
- Recognizing some letters
- Memorizing repetitive phrases in books (“that’s not my dinosaur”)
- Attending preschool two mornings per week
Last night I introduced Wilson to the My First Bob Books: Pre-Reading Skills set. Predictably, he opened the box and dumped all the books out onto the floor. “This one!” he squealed, holding up Book 11: Guessing Machine. Wilson sat still for a few pages before picking up a handful of other books. “How about this one?” I asked, pulling him into my lap and opening up Book 1: Best Friends. We read about three friends: a circle (Sally), square (Seth) and a triangle (Tanner). “A triangle! Wight dare!” shouted Wilson when he spotted Tanner. “Can you show which one is a circle?” I asked. “I dunno,” he replied. “A ball! I see ball!” he shouted, however, when he spotted Sally.
So, as you can see, there are a few challenges ahead but I don’t anticipate any major hurdles (so far). I hope you’ll join in on this learning-to-read journey and send in your comments, suggestions, personal anecdotes, or hey–even some encouraging ‘Dear Wilson’ fan mail ; )
–Allison
