It Is An All Out Reading Blitz!

Grace is officially a strong reader. She has gained the confidence she needs to now sound out any word she sees whether it be in a book, on a box, or on the street. We are almost complete with all of the online books offered by Starfall.com and I am also incorporating books from the library. This was all planned and expected work for this fall, and I am thrilled she has taken to reading so easily and confidently.

What was not expected is my just turned 4 years old son! He's been working on phonics sounds (a single sound per letter), and except for an occasional "oops" he has the sounds all down and associated with their corresponding letters. I just wanted him to become familiar with the sounds, and didn't even plan on introducing the concept of reading until at least another year. He apparently has other plans:

Today, while doing another double digit number recognition flashcard game with me, Jack decided to apply his own rules. Some of the flashcards we use have animals or shapes on the backs illustrating the number or amount, others have the name of the number written out in words. Spontaneously, the child began sorting out his "winnings" as he won them - shapes and animal backed flashcards in one pile, and number words in another pile. If the card had a word, he would check his answer by phonetically sounding out the letters.

This had me sitting in awe and also in horror. My son isn't ready for this!!! "Thirty-two" does not work out phonetically with only one sound committed to memory, and no introduction of how two consonants work together to create totally new sounds. What do I do??? Do I dive in with him? Do I just let him explore and hope he doesn't get frustrated with his sounded out results when they are so different from how the actual word sounds?

I am now embarassed that I had chalked up his boyhood as an instant mark against him for reading early. I just figured I would let him be. I have felt no rush in pushing reading with either of my children, but I assumed Grace would be my earliest reader. But (true confessions from a mother), I thought Jack would read later than Grace because he was a boy, because he was not a first born, or he'd just probably have stronger interests in other areas of his work for a good long while. Isn't that awful??? Shame on me.

Now I am not sure where to invest our time...I don't want to ruin an already good thing.