My bi-annual pop-in

Hey oldies and newbies! I am glad to see this NG still going strong. I
hope to be here more often, and just wanted to reintroduce myself before
jumping in with my question.

Hmm, what info do we usually give in here . . . I have three-year-old
fraternal twin boys, who were delivered by c-section Sept 26, 2000, I just
turned 25 in May, and my husband and I are currently separated and
kinda-sorta beginning the divorce process. I was a SAHM up until March when
I got a part-time job working the front desk at a hotel, which I really
enjoy doing. My boys, BC, are doing well with their babysitter - we started
out having my sister do it which was a great way for them to ease into me
not being around *constantly*, and now my brother's gf is doing it which is
also cool, especially since they just moved in with us.

Um, B is not potty-trained, C is. B was learning a lot for awhile but now I
am stumped as to how to teach him to read and don't know if I should wait
for that or what. He knows what sounds the letters in the alphabet make,
and can write the alphabet. Knows numbers up to 20 and is learning up to
30. Knows basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, hexagon, etc), knows most
of the States (has some difficulty with the north-eastern states), knows
colors and stuff. (C learns from B, so I usually let B learn first, and
then either C eavesdrops or picks it up from his brother.) So what next? I
don't want them to get stuck in a rut . . . I guess my question is, what are
4-year olds supposed to know? 'Cause they're actually 3 1/2 so I should be
teaching them that stuff now. Maybe I should just concentrate on
potty-training and leave the mental stuff alone for now? And HOW do I get
him potty trained??? Grr . . . C has been potty trained for half a year now
and B doesn't even seem to know when his body is preparing to do anything
yet.

Okay, hoping this wasn't so long no one made it to the question . . .

TIA
Nik
--
http://nesorrell.filetap.com



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.699 / Virus Database: 456 - Release Date: 6/4/2004

Hi Nik!

It's great to see you again. I am very sorry to hear about your
separation/divorce. I hope everyone is doing OK.

I guess my question is, what are
4-year olds supposed to know? 'Cause they're actually 3 1/2 so I should be
teaching them that stuff now. Maybe I should just concentrate on
potty-training and leave the mental stuff alone for now?

My boys are only a week younger than yours. Alex potty trained a good 8 mos.
after his brother, and that was only a couple of months ago. As for how to
"teach" him...well, I am all about just letting them make that call. A. had NO
interest in it, even while watching his brother go for so long, standing next
to him and patting him on the back saying "you're such a big boy", etc., etc.
He *still* wouldn't even go near the potty. I just kept asking him every so
often, never pushing it. Then one day he wanted to try it and that was that.
I learned with my DD that pushing it just makes the process harder (not saying
that's what you are doing).

As for the correlation between PT and all the learning, I just don't know.
Maybe he is feeling a little pressure and if you ease up on the teaching, it
might free up his mind a little to tackle the potty. Also are they aware of
what is going on with you and DH? That might be a factor also. In any case,
it's nice to see you again. Good luck with everything and try to check in when
you can!

Take care,

Ellen
--------
Erin 6/26/95
Bradley & Alex 10/5/00

Hi Nik!

It's great to see you again. I am very sorry to hear about your
separation/divorce. I hope everyone is doing OK.

I guess my question is, what are
4-year olds supposed to know? 'Cause they're actually 3 1/2 so I should be
teaching them that stuff now. Maybe I should just concentrate on
potty-training and leave the mental stuff alone for now?

My boys are only a week younger than yours. Alex potty trained a good 8 mos.
after his brother, and that was only a couple of months ago. As for how to
"teach" him...well, I am all about just letting them make that call. A. had NO
interest in it, even while watching his brother go for so long, standing next
to him and patting him on the back saying "you're such a big boy", etc., etc.
He *still* wouldn't even go near the potty. I just kept asking him every so
often, never pushing it. Then one day he wanted to try it and that was that.
I learned with my DD that pushing it just makes the process harder (not saying
that's what you are doing).

As for the correlation between PT and all the learning, I just don't know.
Maybe he is feeling a little pressure and if you ease up on the teaching, it
might free up his mind a little to tackle the potty. Also are they aware of
what is going on with you and DH? That might be a factor also. In any case,
it's nice to see you again. Good luck with everything and try to check in when
you can!

Take care,

Ellen
--------
Erin 6/26/95
Bradley & Alex 10/5/00

Hi Nik!

It's great to see you again. I am very sorry to hear about your
separation/divorce. I hope everyone is doing OK.

I guess my question is, what are
4-year olds supposed to know? 'Cause they're actually 3 1/2 so I should be
teaching them that stuff now. Maybe I should just concentrate on
potty-training and leave the mental stuff alone for now?

My boys are only a week younger than yours. Alex potty trained a good 8 mos.
after his brother, and that was only a couple of months ago. As for how to
"teach" him...well, I am all about just letting them make that call. A. had NO
interest in it, even while watching his brother go for so long, standing next
to him and patting him on the back saying "you're such a big boy", etc., etc.
He *still* wouldn't even go near the potty. I just kept asking him every so
often, never pushing it. Then one day he wanted to try it and that was that.
I learned with my DD that pushing it just makes the process harder (not saying
that's what you are doing).

As for the correlation between PT and all the learning, I just don't know.
Maybe he is feeling a little pressure and if you ease up on the teaching, it
might free up his mind a little to tackle the potty. Also are they aware of
what is going on with you and DH? That might be a factor also. In any case,
it's nice to see you again. Good luck with everything and try to check in when
you can!

Take care,

Ellen
--------
Erin 6/26/95
Bradley & Alex 10/5/00

Nik ) wrote:

Um, B is not potty-trained, C is. B was learning a lot for awhile but now I
am stumped as to how to teach him to read and don't know if I should wait
for that or what. He knows what sounds the letters in the alphabet make,
and can write the alphabet. Knows numbers up to 20 and is learning up to
30. Knows basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, hexagon, etc), knows most
of the States (has some difficulty with the north-eastern states), knows
colors and stuff.

He sounds a lot like my son. He *might* be ready to learn to read, he might
not. I definitely would not push it unless he seems to want to learn. There is
lots of time.

I did teach my son to read starting just after his fourth birthday -- we used
the Bob Books, and did it in *very* short sessions. At first I sat him down to
it every day, but after a couple of weeks I let him set the pace. Sometimes we
had several sessions a day, sometimes none for a week. In two months or so he
had the basics down, and from there on he explored regular books pretty much on
his own. It really did not take very much of my time at all, and my feeling is
that when you have a really bright child who is really ready to read, it
*should* not take very much time.

There are, however, MANY very bright children (all the way up to some
profoundly gifted) who are *not* ready to read this young, and teaching them
too early just prolongs that frustrating sounding-out phase. I did some
research a while ago on what percentage of children read before kindergarten,
and it seems to be under one percent.

--Helen

Nik ) wrote:

Um, B is not potty-trained, C is. B was learning a lot for awhile but now I
am stumped as to how to teach him to read and don't know if I should wait
for that or what. He knows what sounds the letters in the alphabet make,
and can write the alphabet. Knows numbers up to 20 and is learning up to
30. Knows basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, hexagon, etc), knows most
of the States (has some difficulty with the north-eastern states), knows
colors and stuff.

He sounds a lot like my son. He *might* be ready to learn to read, he might
not. I definitely would not push it unless he seems to want to learn. There is
lots of time.

I did teach my son to read starting just after his fourth birthday -- we used
the Bob Books, and did it in *very* short sessions. At first I sat him down to
it every day, but after a couple of weeks I let him set the pace. Sometimes we
had several sessions a day, sometimes none for a week. In two months or so he
had the basics down, and from there on he explored regular books pretty much on
his own. It really did not take very much of my time at all, and my feeling is
that when you have a really bright child who is really ready to read, it
*should* not take very much time.

There are, however, MANY very bright children (all the way up to some
profoundly gifted) who are *not* ready to read this young, and teaching them
too early just prolongs that frustrating sounding-out phase. I did some
research a while ago on what percentage of children read before kindergarten,
and it seems to be under one percent.

--Helen

Nik ) wrote:

Um, B is not potty-trained, C is. B was learning a lot for awhile but now I
am stumped as to how to teach him to read and don't know if I should wait
for that or what. He knows what sounds the letters in the alphabet make,
and can write the alphabet. Knows numbers up to 20 and is learning up to
30. Knows basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, hexagon, etc), knows most
of the States (has some difficulty with the north-eastern states), knows
colors and stuff.

He sounds a lot like my son. He *might* be ready to learn to read, he might
not. I definitely would not push it unless he seems to want to learn. There is
lots of time.

I did teach my son to read starting just after his fourth birthday -- we used
the Bob Books, and did it in *very* short sessions. At first I sat him down to
it every day, but after a couple of weeks I let him set the pace. Sometimes we
had several sessions a day, sometimes none for a week. In two months or so he
had the basics down, and from there on he explored regular books pretty much on
his own. It really did not take very much of my time at all, and my feeling is
that when you have a really bright child who is really ready to read, it
*should* not take very much time.

There are, however, MANY very bright children (all the way up to some
profoundly gifted) who are *not* ready to read this young, and teaching them
too early just prolongs that frustrating sounding-out phase. I did some
research a while ago on what percentage of children read before kindergarten,
and it seems to be under one percent.

--Helen

Hi, Nikolette!

Good to hear from you, though sorry to hear about your family issues.

Re the reading, my kids were also early readers, though there was a lag
between when they knew all of the letter sounds and when they could read.
Oddly, at 3 1/2 they were EXCELLENT spellers of phonetic words (single
letters and also dipthongs like sh, th, ch), but not terrific readers. E.g.
they could spell "ship" quickly and readily, but shown the word "ship", it
would take them longer to sound it out than to spell it. And they really
really ENJOYED spelling (they STILL love it), but didn't seem to want to
read so much. So rather than push them, I just waited until they WANTED to
do it, which I think is important. The spelling game (which they loved, and
we mostly played in the car) kept the letter sounds fresh in their minds so
they weren't backtracking and forgetting those. It also allowed me to add
more letter combinations (double o "oo", double e, ow, silent e etc.), so
that when they were ready to read, they had more tools.

The first book we looked at a lot was "Hop on Pop", which has huge letters,
which seems to help at that age. It starts with "Up, pup, pup is up". Down
side is some harder words that aren't straight phonetic (house, mouse, among
others). There are also the Bob Books that Helen mentioned; I'm not
familiar with them myself. There's also a Clifford phonics series that
comes in a series of boxed sets. I haven't used that one either, as I think
it came out *just* after my kids were already reading well enough that they
were beyond them. Green Eggs and Ham was another one they read early on.

Eventually, I actually wound up using the old SRA series that I had used
myself in school. The first book has only 3-letter short a and short i
words, the second book adds e, o, and u, and it progresses from there.

Julie
Mom to awesome readers Erica & Chris, 07/97


"Nikolette" wrote in message
...
Hey oldies and newbies! I am glad to see this NG still going strong.
I
hope to be here more often, and just wanted to reintroduce myself before
jumping in with my question.

Hmm, what info do we usually give in here . . . I have three-year-old
fraternal twin boys, who were delivered by c-section Sept 26, 2000, I just
turned 25 in May, and my husband and I are currently separated and
kinda-sorta beginning the divorce process. I was a SAHM up until March
when
I got a part-time job working the front desk at a hotel, which I really
enjoy doing. My boys, BC, are doing well with their babysitter - we
started
out having my sister do it which was a great way for them to ease into me
not being around *constantly*, and now my brother's gf is doing it which
is
also cool, especially since they just moved in with us.

Um, B is not potty-trained, C is. B was learning a lot for awhile but now
I
am stumped as to how to teach him to read and don't know if I should wait
for that or what. He knows what sounds the letters in the alphabet make,
and can write the alphabet. Knows numbers up to 20 and is learning up to
30. Knows basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, hexagon, etc), knows
most
of the States (has some difficulty with the north-eastern states), knows
colors and stuff. (C learns from B, so I usually let B learn first, and
then either C eavesdrops or picks it up from his brother.) So what next?
I
don't want them to get stuck in a rut . . . I guess my question is, what
are
4-year olds supposed to know? 'Cause they're actually 3 1/2 so I should
be
teaching them that stuff now. Maybe I should just concentrate on
potty-training and leave the mental stuff alone for now? And HOW do I get
him potty trained??? Grr . . . C has been potty trained for half a year
now
and B doesn't even seem to know when his body is preparing to do anything
yet.

Okay, hoping this wasn't so long no one made it to the question . . .

TIA
Nik
--
http://nesorrell.filetap.com



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.699 / Virus Database: 456 - Release Date: 6/4/2004

Hi, Nikolette!

Good to hear from you, though sorry to hear about your family issues.

Re the reading, my kids were also early readers, though there was a lag
between when they knew all of the letter sounds and when they could read.
Oddly, at 3 1/2 they were EXCELLENT spellers of phonetic words (single
letters and also dipthongs like sh, th, ch), but not terrific readers. E.g.
they could spell "ship" quickly and readily, but shown the word "ship", it
would take them longer to sound it out than to spell it. And they really
really ENJOYED spelling (they STILL love it), but didn't seem to want to
read so much. So rather than push them, I just waited until they WANTED to
do it, which I think is important. The spelling game (which they loved, and
we mostly played in the car) kept the letter sounds fresh in their minds so
they weren't backtracking and forgetting those. It also allowed me to add
more letter combinations (double o "oo", double e, ow, silent e etc.), so
that when they were ready to read, they had more tools.

The first book we looked at a lot was "Hop on Pop", which has huge letters,
which seems to help at that age. It starts with "Up, pup, pup is up". Down
side is some harder words that aren't straight phonetic (house, mouse, among
others). There are also the Bob Books that Helen mentioned; I'm not
familiar with them myself. There's also a Clifford phonics series that
comes in a series of boxed sets. I haven't used that one either, as I think
it came out *just* after my kids were already reading well enough that they
were beyond them. Green Eggs and Ham was another one they read early on.

Eventually, I actually wound up using the old SRA series that I had used
myself in school. The first book has only 3-letter short a and short i
words, the second book adds e, o, and u, and it progresses from there.

Julie
Mom to awesome readers Erica & Chris, 07/97


"Nikolette" wrote in message
...
Hey oldies and newbies! I am glad to see this NG still going strong.
I
hope to be here more often, and just wanted to reintroduce myself before
jumping in with my question.

Hmm, what info do we usually give in here . . . I have three-year-old
fraternal twin boys, who were delivered by c-section Sept 26, 2000, I just
turned 25 in May, and my husband and I are currently separated and
kinda-sorta beginning the divorce process. I was a SAHM up until March
when
I got a part-time job working the front desk at a hotel, which I really
enjoy doing. My boys, BC, are doing well with their babysitter - we
started
out having my sister do it which was a great way for them to ease into me
not being around *constantly*, and now my brother's gf is doing it which
is
also cool, especially since they just moved in with us.

Um, B is not potty-trained, C is. B was learning a lot for awhile but now
I
am stumped as to how to teach him to read and don't know if I should wait
for that or what. He knows what sounds the letters in the alphabet make,
and can write the alphabet. Knows numbers up to 20 and is learning up to
30. Knows basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, hexagon, etc), knows
most
of the States (has some difficulty with the north-eastern states), knows
colors and stuff. (C learns from B, so I usually let B learn first, and
then either C eavesdrops or picks it up from his brother.) So what next?
I
don't want them to get stuck in a rut . . . I guess my question is, what
are
4-year olds supposed to know? 'Cause they're actually 3 1/2 so I should
be
teaching them that stuff now. Maybe I should just concentrate on
potty-training and leave the mental stuff alone for now? And HOW do I get
him potty trained??? Grr . . . C has been potty trained for half a year
now
and B doesn't even seem to know when his body is preparing to do anything
yet.

Okay, hoping this wasn't so long no one made it to the question . . .

TIA
Nik
--
http://nesorrell.filetap.com



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.699 / Virus Database: 456 - Release Date: 6/4/2004

Hi, Nikolette!

Good to hear from you, though sorry to hear about your family issues.

Re the reading, my kids were also early readers, though there was a lag
between when they knew all of the letter sounds and when they could read.
Oddly, at 3 1/2 they were EXCELLENT spellers of phonetic words (single
letters and also dipthongs like sh, th, ch), but not terrific readers. E.g.
they could spell "ship" quickly and readily, but shown the word "ship", it
would take them longer to sound it out than to spell it. And they really
really ENJOYED spelling (they STILL love it), but didn't seem to want to
read so much. So rather than push them, I just waited until they WANTED to
do it, which I think is important. The spelling game (which they loved, and
we mostly played in the car) kept the letter sounds fresh in their minds so
they weren't backtracking and forgetting those. It also allowed me to add
more letter combinations (double o "oo", double e, ow, silent e etc.), so
that when they were ready to read, they had more tools.

The first book we looked at a lot was "Hop on Pop", which has huge letters,
which seems to help at that age. It starts with "Up, pup, pup is up". Down
side is some harder words that aren't straight phonetic (house, mouse, among
others). There are also the Bob Books that Helen mentioned; I'm not
familiar with them myself. There's also a Clifford phonics series that
comes in a series of boxed sets. I haven't used that one either, as I think
it came out *just* after my kids were already reading well enough that they
were beyond them. Green Eggs and Ham was another one they read early on.

Eventually, I actually wound up using the old SRA series that I had used
myself in school. The first book has only 3-letter short a and short i
words, the second book adds e, o, and u, and it progresses from there.

Julie
Mom to awesome readers Erica & Chris, 07/97


"Nikolette" wrote in message
...
Hey oldies and newbies! I am glad to see this NG still going strong.
I
hope to be here more often, and just wanted to reintroduce myself before
jumping in with my question.

Hmm, what info do we usually give in here . . . I have three-year-old
fraternal twin boys, who were delivered by c-section Sept 26, 2000, I just
turned 25 in May, and my husband and I are currently separated and
kinda-sorta beginning the divorce process. I was a SAHM up until March
when
I got a part-time job working the front desk at a hotel, which I really
enjoy doing. My boys, BC, are doing well with their babysitter - we
started
out having my sister do it which was a great way for them to ease into me
not being around *constantly*, and now my brother's gf is doing it which
is
also cool, especially since they just moved in with us.

Um, B is not potty-trained, C is. B was learning a lot for awhile but now
I
am stumped as to how to teach him to read and don't know if I should wait
for that or what. He knows what sounds the letters in the alphabet make,
and can write the alphabet. Knows numbers up to 20 and is learning up to
30. Knows basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, hexagon, etc), knows
most
of the States (has some difficulty with the north-eastern states), knows
colors and stuff. (C learns from B, so I usually let B learn first, and
then either C eavesdrops or picks it up from his brother.) So what next?
I
don't want them to get stuck in a rut . . . I guess my question is, what
are
4-year olds supposed to know? 'Cause they're actually 3 1/2 so I should
be
teaching them that stuff now. Maybe I should just concentrate on
potty-training and leave the mental stuff alone for now? And HOW do I get
him potty trained??? Grr . . . C has been potty trained for half a year
now
and B doesn't even seem to know when his body is preparing to do anything
yet.

Okay, hoping this wasn't so long no one made it to the question . . .

TIA
Nik
--
http://nesorrell.filetap.com



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.699 / Virus Database: 456 - Release Date: 6/4/2004