Reading

Today it struck me undeniably that Daisy is reading a little--just a few basic words, but I think she keeps getting more and more. As she was "reading" The Mole Sisters to me today, she pointed to a word and said, "See, Mama, that says 'Oh.'" And it did. She then pointed out "Whee," "Boo," "Stop," and "Plonk." I might have thought the first word was just a fluke, but that was quite a few, and I noticed that she was able to recognize them in other contexts when they appeared (not just on the page she initially pointed them out). I think there might be others as well (related to "Oh," for example, she pointed out "Oooooo"). I have not been trying to teach her at all, so how did she learn? I think it must be the fact that she has memorized some books and is now able to see where a particular word must be. For example, she knows every single word of The Mole Sisters (a book of 160 pages, but with only a little bit of text per page, and in big letters). This is not an exaggeration: she knows every single word. Thus, I think she may be able to see what word must correspond with "Oh" when she says "Oh."

I have a feeling that if I pushed this-- if I started trying to teach her words-- this budding reading ability would explode. However, I don't want to create any pressure or make it into some yucky task. Right now, reading is so much fun and the source of a lot of pleasure for her. So I think I'll just sit back and observe what she does!

(Another fun tidbit: she has named the Mole Sisters "Tom and Hannah." Their actual names don't appear anywhere in the book. She is VERY insistent that they are Tom and Hannah and gets upset when I ask her where she got that idea.)