If a complete stranger walked in our house right now, I can only imagine the look of confusion that would be on their face. Well, actually, if any of our friends or family walked in our house right now they would probably have the same look of confusion.
Let me back up and explain… because I am pretty sure you probably have a confused look on your face right about now.
Last week, Kiera’s teacher informed us that Kiera has mastered her alphabet recognition and their sounds. We were extremely excited. She has started recognizing some words and is constantly rattling off letters trying to spell something.
This weekend, my Mom, who is also a teacher, brought an assessment book by our house and left it with me. It shows some of the sight words that help children begin to learn to read.
I took it a step further and bought index cards. I then wrote all the sight words down plus some extra words and placed them around the house. It seemed like a really good idea and honestly, I still think it is a good idea. Kiera was excited to run around the house and find all the words and have us read them to her or she would try and sound them out.The only downfall is it looks… a little strange. Aaron’s recliner has the word ‘chair’ taped to it. On the inside of our front door are the words ‘door’ and ‘out’. Above the 2016 puppy calendar is the word ‘dog’. My favorite is the pantry door has the word ‘food’ taped to it.
Thankfully, there are enough other random words like ‘and,’ ‘it, ‘the’ and so on that help balance the labels out. I carried the index card theme from the kitchen, living room and into both the bedrooms. I stopped myself from labeling objects in the bathroom.
I have to admit once you start labeling objects in your house, it’s really hard to stop. I glance around and see objects that aren’t hard words, like ‘fan’ and bed.’ As much as I really want to put a label on them, I have managed to restrain myself. Once she learns a few words, then I will switch them out for new ones. I don’t know that Aaron could handle white index cards labeling everything in our house.
I do need to make a mental note to warn our new friends that will be coming over for dinner later this week. They might not be willing to stay and hang out very long if they think I have to remind myself where the food is located and that to go out I have to find the card that reads ‘door’.
It has been really fun watching Kiera learn to recognize her letters and numbers. She was a huge help at the garage sale this weekend. She went around pricing items as I told her what number to put on the item. I’ve also noticed that when I describe certain items to her now, I don’t describe them by the color anymore. I usually have her look for the letters.
