rudderless

Sophie’s Work

Sophie had a burst of creative energy the other night and drew seven or eight of these big drawings. I adore them. I think they’re so beautiful. And so totally unlike anything she’d ever drawn before. I was worried that teaching her to write letters would negatively impact her drawing. If anything, it’s done the opposite. She’s drawing figures now, but mostly experimenting with large abstract marks. Perfection.

We’ve been working with her on phonics sounds and letter recognition- she’s mastered both with the help of The Letter Factory and tons of reinforcement from Starfall, her own writing, even the phonics toy on our fridge. Last week I decided to see what she could do with the series of BOB Books we checked out from the library. So far, she has blown me away with her abilities to read simple language. I’m noticing that she uses the context and illustrations to figure out words more often than she resorts to phonics. From what little memory I have of learning to read, this seems really familiar. I didn’t spend much time sounding words out. Most came from context and memory. It’s fun to see her mind working in ways I didn’t expect, but that feel natural. I’ve learned as much from her as she’s learned from me.

We spend about fifteen minutes a day reviewing a BOB Book she’s close to mastering, and then introducing a new story. They are fabulous tools- simple, repetitive, but quick and to the point. Concepts (like questions and quotations) are introduced slowly and repeated a few times, characters appear again and again. Even I’m invested in seeing where “Mag hid the bag.” We ordered our own set so we can return the library’s, we like them that much . . . here she is reading one of the earliest stories.