L has been able to sound out cvc words for a while now but this past month she has completely exploded in her interest and ability to read and also to sound out words.

She is really interested in what letter sounds are in words and is constantly breaking up words to figure out the sounds.

This is the first word she spelled out after one of our walks.

Something that has been immensely helpful has been these word family game cards.  I saw this brilliant idea on The Snail's Trail using paint chips ages ago and bookmarked it for when we were ready.  I couldn't find the right kind of paint chips so I just used colorful paper. 

These totally helped L to hear and see how different words can change just by changing one letter.  After using these cards she is constantly thinking up different groups of words that rhyme.

 Usually after school when we are sitting down for lunch our conversation(lead by L)consists of sounding out different words and her friends names and figuring out who has L's in their names.  She is bored of sounding out cvc words and wants to do things like watermelon!  How do you tell a kid that we need to walk before we can run!!

I made up this activity for her where she picks an object out of the mystery bag and then she finds the letters to spell it.  She sometimes needs help putting them in the correct order as she likes to find the beginning and ending sounds first.

We also did an activity that I thought would be ages away where I wrote action words like "jump", "clap", "run" and "sit".  I would show them to L and she had to read them and then do the action.  She ripped them off no problem and loves them.

She is totally in a self led sensitive period for reading and sounding out words and I'm trying to keep up with her.  In a way it's difficult doing phonics because most of the words she tries to read in everyday life aren't phonetic!  Very frustrating for her and me.

I ordered the first series of the Bob Books and L really enjoys these. 

A warning to parents who teach their children the letter sounds at an early age.  They might just want to use them!!!