My instinct was to jump in and say, "Honey, that's about the hardest thing there is to read. The letters for the countries follow completely different rules because the sounds are not always based on English and... well Kazakhstan is just going to tongue tie you!"
But I didn't. It took all I had to swallow my "wise words" and watch him try. I was ready for him to get mad at not being able to figure out the words he was looking at. I was ready for him to mess up. I was ready for him to give up.
I was not ready for him to start reading the words on the map. Brazil. Peru. Japan. Canada. Mexico. Columbia. Egypt. Sudan. Tanzania. India. Poland. Russia. Pakistan. Iran. Mali. Kenya. Somalia. Sri Lanka. And yes, Kazakhstan.
I also wasn't ready for him to start remembering where thse places were after reading them once. He started getting excited about how these places had meaning to him. It all started to click... "That's where Makenzie lives now!"... "That's where Magellan sailed his ships!"... "That's where sushi comes from!"... "That's where our people are from!"... "That's where the pyramids are!"... "That's where Neel's mommy is from!"... "That's where Ricardo lives!" And all I had to do was nod and smile and hold my tongue and once in a while say "That's right buddy, you got it!"
;)
9 comments:
I did the same thing the other day. It's amazing what these little guys learn when we stay out of the way, isn't it?
I mean I underestimated my daughter. That's what I meant by the same thing. She pulled out a book and read almost every word.
That's awesome! Go Zach! :) Philip was reading a book about birthdays around the world this week. I thought the same thing, but he managed to work it out too.
awesome!
What an amazing boy! That is sooo cool. Unschooling..how lucky are we?
OMG! That's INSANE in such a wonderful and amazing way!
i have been stopping by to see how your week has been going. it is going along beautifully. i love following my little ones lead. but now with her in school, we are side tracked:( it's wonderful to homeschool, maybe next year will be our year. the kitchen looks great, as well.
Oooh isn't that the hardest lesson as a parent - learning to keep our mouths shut! What a great start to reading - and so much more interesting than "This is Dick ..."!
Hi, I'm an MDC reader (yes, the one from Burbank). Just wanted to pass along this old Animaniacs song that my DS (six) really enjoys. We've never watched this video before tonight -- I was looking for it so you could hear the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ3gK-9PPYo&feature=related
-Erin
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