Joshua Can Read! (a few words)

Two weeks or so ago, Joshua began saying words and then letting me know what the beginning or ending sound was.  After he does that, he would try to guess which letter was making that sound.  So I have started teaching him the sounds of letters whenever he asks about it, or occasionally when something he has asked about comes up again.  Last week, I told him he could learn how to read because he was able to guess what so many letters were by the sounds.  He got super excited, so I found a book and a CD-rom that taught how to read.  We did a sample of the cd-rom lesson on a website.  The reviews were good and he liked the sample lesson so we bought the book and cd-rom.  Anyway...  it came in the mail yesterday, so today we did the first lesson on the computer.  The lesson focussed on the letters "a, t, s, c, o" and their accompanying sounds. Then it showed how to combine them together to make the words.  After each lesson, there are activities.  One of them was word recognition.  They show the words he has learned and he has to pick the correct word that the voice asks for.  He did that activity twice and on the second time around he got every one correct.  Now he can sight read "at, cat, sat".  And he almost has "cot" down.  The lesson also shows the word on the screen and asks them to type it.  He needs a little bit of help with that still, but I'm amazed at how fast that's coming along.  He only did it once and he's almost got it.

I'm just so surprised and impressed!  I guess he really wants to read!  I can't wait to see if his retention is good.  Tomorrow will be a good test to see if the info he learned sticks with him.  

P.S.  As I write this he is looking at the word LOVE and asking me, "Which letter makes the sound _____?"  Then he says the sound of a letter in that word and wants me to guess.