BEGINNING TO READ
Jared has been sounding out words since he was 3 1/2, but now he's starting to recognize words and their potential power. Today at the store, he offered to swipe my credit card to pay. He said, "Do I press Yes or No first?" I looked, and it said, "Was your cashier friendly today?" followed by Yes and No buttons. He hasn't swiped my credit card in ages, so it's not something he'd memorized.
Unfortunately, I know to what source I owe this development. It's his favorite computer game, Club Penguin. He can type the first half of his penguin's name (also the log-in name), and he has to choose which button to click, such as "play" "yes" "no" and "log out." I thought he'd just memorized where they were, but apparently he's memorized the actual word!
He likes to type to Daddy on instant messenger. Without fail, he types "mommydaddyjaredzach." Over and over.
My sister lent us "Go Dog Go" and Jared read a lot of words in that book! He's really starting to catch the vision that learning to read could be fun and beneficial. Before, he was perfectly capable of doing it, but didn't really care to learn. We'll see if his interest increases, we won't be pushing it. He's got almost a year and a half before he can start kindergarten!