Why??

Why am I teaching phonics to my 2 1/2 year old?

First of all... she has already taught herself to read easy words and knows many others. All it takes is for her to ask me one or two times what a word is... she'll repeat it to herself a few times... and ta da... she knows it. She is ready to learn it. (She doesn't understand that it is not appropriate for someone of her age to be where she is)

Secondly... She wants to learn. For a while now, I've technically been holding her back because of the worry about her age, and how "healthy" it would be for her to jump ahead like she wants. I want her to be a two year old. However, I am slowly coming to the conclusion that as long as she is happy, I do not at all push her, and I let her learning be "child led".... then why not give her the knowledge she desperately wants? She is eager and excited and her basic attitude is like "'Well, finally Mom, you've gotten with my program!"

Thirdly... it is not as if am sitting her down and making some big production out of learning and making her do lessons. She decides she wants to "do her reading", brings the book to me, and we just do it verbally. The lessons are not intensive at all.

An example from lesson 1:
a m am
a n an
a t at

Lesson 2 builds on 1:
S am Sam
m an man
h at hat

To Aidan, the lessons we have already done, are easy. So far, she knows most of the words they have shown how to "glue" together but when she reads the words she didn't know... she is SO excited about it. "I'm reading Mommy!" Somehow, she seems to understand that just knowing a word and actually reading it using phonics are two different things.

I do not know how long her interest with this will be. It may be a week. It may be a year. I dunno. If she likes it and asks for it... then we will continue. If she loses interest then it will sit on a shelf and collect dust. That's my plan anyway.

People, don't hate.