TAG books

I bought a  Leapfrog Tag Reading System before Winston was born.  He is now 22months, and I decided to get it out again a few weeks ago.  He seems to quite like it.

He gets it of the shelf himself, turns the pen on and looks for his favourite word in the book (which is yipeeee!) .

He doesn't follow sentences yet, which i think is because you have to be quite accurate with the pen, but he does 2 or 3 words in a row, and there is quite a lot of other information in the books from the pictures.

He is also not interested in listening to whole stories or pages, he just wants to point at words he likes or pictures he likes and hear those.

Everyone has a cough and a cold at the moment, but all the snow has melted and the sun is shining and the sky is perfect blue!

matching words to pictures

I have printed out some nice pictures in sets of about 10-14 items in fairly random categories.. Then with Winston I write what the items are on separate bits of card and cut them up with him. He likes every stage of the making of these. Then I go through them with him once or twice, and spread them out for him when he asks. I cant believe how quickly he knows which words go with the right ones.

So far we have

Instruments 1
Instruments 2
Birds
Sea Creatures
Primates
Stuff around the home
Countries with flags (10 countries)
Countries on a map (about 25 countries)
Herbs and Spices
The solar system
Jobs
Polygons
Human body
Flowers

 First thing in the morning he is asking for Primates or Instruments or Polygons. If he could, he would only play with these. So if I need 10  minutes to do something else these are a good baby sitter!

He always claps when he finishes. If he gets something wrong, he usually realises before he finishes. He is totally absorbed in what he is doing.

21months old now.

Reading books , chinese and speaking

Winston is saying loads of words now. Almost anything that he hears loud and clear and is interested in, he will have a go at copying.. actually anything of 2 syllables or less.

He occasionally puts 4 words together ... such as "Daddy , get down, Diddi" ... meaning .. "Daddy , put Winston down" or "Daddy help Winston down (from a chair)"    Get sounds more like GIT .. i don't know where he got the Texan accent from!!

Here is Winston reading "Enough Inigo Enough", He is  1 year 8 months and 2 weeks (20 1/2 months) old.

He gets to about the 4th page, then prefers I read it to him. We don't push him. Its nice how he reacts to a word like family.

Winston loves this video from Kidstv123 on youtube ... they do lots of good ones

Heres our playlist at the moment
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL74FFAE35E8DD83D8

We've put Earworms Chinese in the car, and Winston is shouting out bits and bobs from it. His pronouciation is very good.... with apparently very little effort.

Update, Winston at 19months 2 weeks.

READING
Winston picked up most of the animals for this from a Melissa and Doug fishing puzzle game.
He soon learnt all the words, and enjoyed putting them on the right pictures.
We now have sets of kitchen implements,  birds, and musical instruments.

I have removed all the words in the kitchen... they were getting a bit old.. so have started with fresh new words... writing them as they come up and sticking them on the cupboards.

We have words all the way up the stairs, which are nicely at eye-level when Winston is climbing the stairs .. he likes to call them out. They need changing for fresh ones now though. I thought it might be good to make a story that makes sense when climbing the stairs.

When i am reading Winston some of the home made books, at the end of the page, He will often stop and point at a few of the words to get me to repeat them. Some books that i am quite sure he knows well, i just slowly turn the pages, trusting that he knows or can read the words. We still like "Enough Inigo Enough"

WRITING
All the words we have around the house, have been written  in front of Winston. Whenever we are drawing and I say "what shall we draw", he usually says "A" , and likes it when i draw an "A".  He likes to try to draw O , sometime I and E ... strange how its mainly the vowels. Sometimes he draws more complicated squiggles and says it is a person or something else, but usually he seems to be trying to draw letters. He holds the pen very nicely. I usually draw something other than letters, but he just mainly like trying the letters.

SPEAKING

He is regularly using two words together now.

He likes saying things like "green pen" ...  anything with a colour and a nouon .. especially BLUE

Also he loves having two of anything, so he can say "TWO FORKS" for example .. he smiles when given three of something and has started counting objects .. 6 and 9 are favorites to say - usually not at the right times.

Also "Winstons Chair" or "Daddys spoon"

MUSIC

We are encouraging Winston to play his little piano. Each time he plays , we give him a big cheer. He seems to be experimenting with it in a more purposeful way now. He lilkes to play with his bottom or his knees! I just bought a 1/2 size guitar. To start with  I will teach myself a bit (i know nothing), and let Winston have a go when he wants.


We have another boy on the way ... Winston seems to think he should be called AJA BAJA BURR (its not something arabic ... it means naughty naughty in Swedish) ... a 4D scan...

COUNTING

Winston likes to say "one, two, three, four, nine, six". He loves having or seeing 2 of anything, and he likes counting up and down the stairs.

cough, coffee and path

I showed  Winston the word cough ... and he does a little cough each time.

I have also been showing him coffee.  Since he could read the word cough, when i showed him coffee, he also did a little cough. So i guess he doesnt understand the word coffee.. but when he reads it he knows that part of the word is the same sound as cough.

I am trying to introduce 5-10 words a day at the moment... he picks them up so fast.  Today he learnt the word  PATH very quickly and he can pronounce it quite well as well.

I put him to sleep by laying next to him today. It took a while and there were some small grumbles ... i think mainly because he had just had quite a big drink and wanted a wee... but after about  30minutes he wenyt to sleep (without Mamma or boob).

Accelleration

Winston seems to be picking things up even quicker now.  If a new word is relevant and interesting to him ... for  example he was enjoying fresh blueberries that we were picking from the forest (blåbär).... when i wronte this on a card and showed it to him .. then showed him it again a few hours later, he immediately pointed to teh tub of blueberries.

I was just re-watching some videos we made in the last few days, and he is trying to say a lot of the words ... but he is nowhere near being able to pronounce a lot of the letters / phonics.

According to "how babies talk" (an excellent book) ,  this is when babies are able to properly make sounds...
p,m,h,n,w,b - in the first 2 years
r and l - between 3 and 6 years
k,g,d and t - between 2 and 4
ch, sh, z, j - between 3.5 and 8 years

so a word like "toothbrush" is not going to be easy for a 15month old.  But , Winston has a go... i didnt notice until i watched this a few times.

He also really likes the word "tiptoes"

and this video shows most of the letters that he knows .. I am quite sure he nkows more, but he cant pronounce them at all ... and his favorite ones (the ones he keeps getting and announcing what they are), are the ones he can say for obvious reasons.

I made a new book about someone who came to visit. Winston likes it a lot.  He picks out his Mamma on any pages where she appears, and picks out  tiny bits on sweetcorn on a picture of  us having a picnic.

Bajs .. Ish .. Water and words

We've had a hot few days , so have been to the seaside and the local lake a few times.  Winston loves going in the water, he laughs when he goes in cold water on the parts that we hate the water to reach!

He has become very reliable at shouting out BAJS! when he has a poo coming.  Sometimes he is saying it for about 20 minutes before he is truly ready to go .. and in that time , we might put him on his potty / toilet  quite a few times.. but eventually he will go.

I've been reading our home mad books to Winston more and more.. and using the flash words less.  Our kitchen is getting full of words  now .. as whenever something comes up, I write it an bluetack it.

I think he has forgotten the word BUS, but has got more comfortable with others. Here's a film. He said TREE for the first time, quite nicely.

Also, I have been starting to teach him about 16 action words.  When you leave a room and say bye to someone, Winston will often wave about 5 seconds later.  It is good to bear this in mind when teaching him new stuff ... he has to have time to work it out.  Here's a film of Winston learning some action words with his mental dad.

A video of Winston reading some words

I made this book for Winston some time ago. He likes it, and gets excited when I show it to him... normally he does the hammer motion when he sees this book  or similar ones i have made since.

This film shows some words Winston can read now - just short of 14 months.

He cant speak... but the noises he makes are his versions of the words for those items, so i can be sure he is reading and understanding the words.

sweetcorn is a bit long and difficult, and pen just doesnt get said that much (or not enthusiastically enough ) !