Sight Words
pamelamyers | January 16, 2015
Sam’s friend from school Ava came over today after school for a playdate. While her mom and I were chatting, Sam and Ava suddenly decided to show us a game they were playing at school. It was hard to figure out what they were talking about, but we got the gist that they were learning some words. Later that night, Sam said to me, “I can’t believe I know two sight words!” They learned “and” and “the” at school. Sight words are not something I recall when I was in school, but I know it’s a big thing now in teaching. In kindergarten they get huge lists of them. Well, at any rate, I am glad Sam is showing an interest in learning words – I can’t wait for her to learn to read! Reading is such a joy for me, I just need it to be a joy for her too. Hopefully, it will come easy for her and she will soon be reading some basic books to me at night. She does like to “read” to me – she chooses books we read a lot and that she knows well and basically repeats the story to me. Sometimes, she can do a page almost word for word. She is very proud that she can “read” to me. Every once in a while I try to get her sound out words to me and I tell her if she doesn’t try, she won’t learn to read and she insists to me she can read. How to explain to her that, actually, no, she can’t, without bursting her proud bubble is a mystery to me.
She is trying though, and learning more and more each day. Our parent-teacher conference is coming up soon so I guess we’ll find out from her teacher, Mrs. Dunbar, how well she seems to understand the process. We should have the opportunity to discuss kindergarten readiness too – yikes!