Progress

Aidan is skipping right along!

First of all... she started completing Explode the Code on her own now. I of course check it but she's zipping through the pages with very little help.

Secondly... Her reading this week has really taken off. She read her readers I assigned the first day. They were easy and she already knew half of her vocabulary words.

Also, until now, reading has been mostly school related or something she and I did together. Now, she's reading books in the car, alone in her room, to Daddy at night... all over the place. The other day she picked up Green Eggs and Ham and started reading it aloud to Ainsley. She got so excited because she wasn't aware of how skilled she'd grown and hadn't realized until she read the book with ease that she could really read books other than those that I had given her.

What about Ainsley?

Ainsley is doing really well herself. She definitely knows all her letters now and has been working on her counting. (She counts to 14 without any issues and then almost can finish to 20) She's also pointing out her colors wherever she goes. Lately, I've been working with her on doing puzzles and using her small motor skills. She never got the amount of attention Aidan did with those things and is slightly "behind" (haha) on them.

Sometimes, I am almost more impressed with Ainsley than I was with Aidan. If you compare them side by side and age by age then you would think Ainsley is behind to where Aidan was at her age. However, going by personality and interest and natural skills... it's like Ainsley has learned her letters and their sounds and how to count the hard way and Aidan was just lucky in that she had a great memory.

Does that make any sense?

No, Ainsley is not reading at 2.5. She hasn't shown any signs of knowing sight words or other such things Aidan was. But she also is a kid who isn't overly interested in that stuff either. She seems more interested in people and interpersonal relationships. So, the fact that she's picked up all that she has (because I'm certainly not sitting her down and drilling her) shows how very incredibly bright she is. I am very proud of her and let's face it... she's still way ahead of the average 26 month old.