Kelly is Reading and Writing

Kelly (turning 5, 9/25) is showing early interest and aptitude reading and writing.

I just found this example of his writing on the scanner from last month.  After breakfast he asked me if he could write some words.  I said, "Sure what word would you like to write?"  Kelly thought for a second and said, "Bat."

"What letter makes the beginning sound of bat?"

Making the B sound, Kelly replied, "B, b, b, bee!"

And then the kid wrote the letter B, unassisted by me. I told him the next letters were, A and then T.  I coached him a bit with the A but he made the T without my help. "What word do you want to write next?"

Kelly, a rhyming fool, said, "Cat."

He then wrote, as you can see:
CAT
SAT
MAT
ON
MO(M)

He switch back to rhyming with PAT.  Kelly was getting frustrated writing the A in Pat, so I made the A for him - not my best work.  Either way, this was all very surprising to me that Kelly was able to produce this quantity of words.  We read stacks and stacks of books together (we recently finished James and the Giant Peach and are currently working on The Mouse and the Motorcycle), but we've done very little writing work with Kelly.  Whatever writing instruction they are providing at his pre-school, Kelly is picking it up.

For Father's Day, dear Gram Mary sent an early reader type book (we are fortunate that she sends books for almost every holiday) about a boy "helping" his dad.  Kelly, responsible for reading all the "Dad"s, "The"s and a few other common words, made me read the book with him ten times a day for several days. 

After I discovered the site with a random web search, Kelly has enthusiastically been working to complete every phonics drill and prodding me to read every terrible web book on Starfall.com.   The other night when I was putting the finishing touches on a dinner, Kelly asked if I could do the "reading game" with him.  I said I would love to do the reading game but, I'm sorry, we are about the sit down for dinner.  We'll do it first thing after, that will be fun, buddy.  With this disappointing news, Kelly flew into a hysterical tantrum, the likes of which we have not seen from him for sometime now.  What can I say, the kid really loves to read.

The boys love reading, writing, and decorating all sorts of things with stickers.