Aishwarya sits up!

Baby sat up today! 

She's babbling babbling ! 

She pulled herself forward to nearly under the table today! 

Ashwin leads the conversation

This morning Saro left before Ashwin woke up. 

First thing he said was: hey! Where is Appa? He's not here I think! 

Then, later, where is Appa . He didn't sleep with us. 

Conversation with Saro: 

Where did you go Appa ? 

I went out! 

What did you do? 

I went for a walk

What did you see? 

I saw.... 

We were thrilled!!!! 

learning to read

How do young people learn to read?

I don’t remember consciously learning to read – it was a magic that suddenly happened.

But for Akshaya, I am not waiting for the magic to happen on its own. I am pushing it – ‘teaching’ her to read.

hmm.. is that wise?

anyway, I saw the magic light her eyes up yesterday!

this story did not have a good start though.

Sunday night – I took out a phonics book and said, Akshaya, let’s read 1 page –

the one page had only 5 words that she had to read but she struggled, and cried and fought with me – I don’t love you, I won’t hug you, I won’t kiss you!

and I was – Akshaya – just read the words! what’s the letter sound? put them together! the longer you take the less time we have to read anjanaya! hahaha – so threatening right!

anyway, the last word she read was ‘up’. the full sentence was “ted and ned got up”. when I asked which was the word she enjoyed reading the most – it was ‘up’.

and I told myself, this cannot go on. this would kill her joy of reading – it was punishing, not magical.

then yesterday, I told her, let’s read any 5 two letter words – my idea was to start teaching with the use of roots and ends of words

she suggested reading the same book again –she had memorized her torturous sentence! haha –so anyway, while I got ready for bed, she started reading, and she experienced some magic by reading 3 words herself. ‘The ten hens...’

she got stuck at the next word – ‘led’

so I then taught her a ‘secret’

we broke up words into two parts

h + en =

t + en =

m + en =

b + en =

then we did ed

l + ed  =

okay stop.

e + n = en

e + d= ed

then,

l + ed = led

T + ed = ted

N + ed = Ned

B + ed = Bed

R + ed= Red

she got the magic! she then read that page and the next – she overcame a new word, ‘fed’ using her breaking up into two parts formula

it was beautiful!

she got stuck with not – we started with the secret again

n + ot = not

but she was too tired to do the pattern again for not. however she read ‘not’ and then went on to read 3 – 4pages!

so we will continue today or tomorrow

magic! this story will recall for her how she learnt to read!

she already knows sight words from school – that is just committing to memory really.