🚀 go-pugleaf

"Chookie" <ehrebeniuk@foulspambegone.com.au> wrote in message 
news:ehrebeniuk-6C2BA1.23020124042005@news-vip.optusnet.com.au...
> DS is 4y 2mo now.  We've known for a long time that he's bright, that he's
> good with language, and so on.  But it is still a bit confronting to see 
> your
> preschooler *reading*, when you know that you and your DH were not doing 
> it at
> that age!  Not every word he sees, no; but enough for us to know that he's
> reading words, not reciting from memory or working it out from context.
>
> Today at the supermarket, we decided to indulge, and picked out packets of
> chips for ourselves.  Thought DS had grabbed some Cheezels.  At the car, 
> he
> read "Holes".  Sure enough, they were Cheezel Holes, but DS is not 
> familiar
> with the related concept of Donut Holes, the picture wasn't really
> enlightening, and we can't recall reading any stories with "holes" in them
> recently.
>
> Two things surprise us.  The first is the size of his reading vocabulary.
> Back when I did Language Acquisition in Psychology, it was thought that 
> most
> of us have about a 50-word whole-word vocabulary.  DS must be getting 
> close to
> that now.  He can't, AFAICT, break a word into sounds yet -- he's reading 
> it
> as a unit, though he's aware of the word as a fixed letter sequence.  The
> second is for how long he must be remembering some words, like "holes" in 
> the
> anecdote above.
>
> DS also likes to put pen to paper and produce marks like running-writing. 
> We
> mere parents can't read it, of course, because DS is writing (he tells us) 
> in
> *German*.  He reads it back to us in gibberish.  We aren't 
> German-speakers,
> though DS has probably heard me mention this as one of Grandpa's 
> languages.
> AFAIK there are no German-speakers at daycare.
>
> I don't know that we need to change what we do with him, though 
> suggestions
> are welcome, but I'm just a bit staggered...

i don't really have any suggestions. all i can give is my experience. i was 
reading at 3 properly. but that was because my mother had taught me. i 
remember in kindy i was the only one who could read, so i got different 
lessons sometimes. and in year 1, i was with a teacher's aide or a helper 
parent when everyone else did reading and we sat in a different room. i 
don't being separated in year 2 but my reading was still way ahead.