Phonics

I've been spending the last few days teaching Marisa her letter sounds. We make a fun game of the whole process.

I ask her what the letter "A" says.

She tells me that the letter makes some off the wall sound that is completely not what that letter says.

I tell her in a voice that is incredulous that that is NOT what the letter says.

Then I tell here exactly what the letter says.

She repeats what I say about the letter, then we carry on to the next one in line.

We do this for the entire alphabet.

This is the same method I used for Kira two years ago. Kira, however, preferred to tell me that her letters said "nothing" instead of providing me with nonsense sounds. At any rate, Marisa is learning the letter sounds and having fun being obstinate about it. Who knew that "MY" Marisa would enjoy being obstinate and difficult??? (Never saw THAT one coming...)

Animal Deciders

Kira invented a new game last night called Animal Deciders. Yes, this is the name she chose for her new game. It's a very interesting game. Two players - me and her - take turns being an animal. One player pretends to be an animal and tells what they look like, what they eat, and what they do. The other player has to decide what kind of animal is being described.

This game started with Kira telling me that she lives in the water, eats fish that gets stuck in her head, and only has a heart and lungs - no brain.

**blink blink blink**

Um - it took me a few minutes... then I realized she was a Jelly Fish!!! Mind you, she just turned 5 years old yesterday.

We played this game for over a half an hour. Suffice it to say that she stumped me far more than I stumped her. I can now mark off "knows common animals - both land and sea" from her Scope and Sequence.

This has also left me wondering exactly how long it will be before I can no longer keep up with her... (I'm scared...)

Letter Sounds

I spent a good bit of time with Marisa today chatting about nothing in particular. One of our conversations revolved around what the letters say. She started this by asking me what the number 4 says. After I told her that the number 4 doesn't say anything, we continued the discussion moving on to the letters.

Marisa is learning her letter sounds the same way that Kira did. The only difference is that Marisa doesn't insist that the letters say "nothing" all the time. Still, it's a fun game for her. It's a bit tedious for me, but hey - that's what I'm here for.