Petra’s big surprise

So, a few weeks ago, Petra wanted to “make a card” for someone. She folded a piece of paper, drew a picture, and then on the inside, she wrote. I asked her what she was doing, and she said, “You have to write in a card!”

And I thought…oh, okay, she’s getting some print literacy going on.

And then today, I asked Silas to read me a BOB book. He did pretty well–better than I had expected. It had been a few weeks since he’d really read much, but I think he’s made progress.

When he was done, Petra said she wanted to read one. She’s been “reading” for a while, running through books she has 100% memorized, but I knew she didn’t have any of the BOB books memorized. I was about to hand her just any book and let her talk about the pictures, but she the way she kept saying, “No, I can really read it” made me rethink it. I handed her the first BOB book. And to my astonishment, she pointed to the letters and said the sounds. And then she put the sounds together into words.

And then Silas started distracting her, so it didn’t last, but I did get a moment of it on video before he started to act up.

I did manage to get her to read a bit more on her own before they both totally lost it.

Holy. Crap.

I’ve done very little with her in terms of any formal reading instruction. She’s looked over Silas’ shoulder for long enough, though. So now I’m teaching both of them to read, I guess.

She’ll be three in October.