B is for Bacuum

For a few weeks now I've been trying to build a foundation for teaching the boys to read. They've been able to read the letters of the alphabet for quite a while now, so I decided it was time for them to learn what sounds each letter makes. During their everyday play I've been drilling them with questions like, "What sound does 'A' make?" and, "What letter does apple begin with?" and they have thereby learned how to sound out the first letter of various words: ah apple, buh banana, and so forth. They caught on quickly and were soon sounding out everything in sight. My favorite was the time Caleb glanced over at the vacuum and proudly proclaimed, "buh bacuum!" Mimi said that is correct as far as she is concerned (since 'B' and 'V' are indistinguishable in the Korean language). :)

Anyway, while the boys have easily learned to associate the sound of the letter with the word, associating the actual letter with the word is obviously a little trickier. Today Caleb was playing with his Curious George stuffed animal, propping him up on the couch. "Hey, look Mommy, Curious George is sitting on the couch!" he told me. "Oh wow! What letter does couch begin with?" I replied. Instead of just blurting out, "cuh couch" as he usually does, I could tell that he was really putting his brain to work. After giving it some thought, he hesitantly replied, "'C' couch!" I was so excited, knowing that he had come to that conclusion entirely on his own, especially since "couch" isn't a word we've been using during our alphabet drills. Caleb was beaming with pride, too. He then found a stick lying around. "How about stick?" he suggested. "What letter does stick begin with?" I asked him. He paused pensively, then replied, "'T' stick!" I proceeded to explain that he was very close, and that 'T' is the second letter in the word stick, but that the first letter is 'S'. A few minutes later Caleb was playing with a ball and once again prompted me to drill him, saying, "how about ball?" I asked him, "what letter does ball begin with?" He paused briefly to think before concluding, "'B' ball!" A while later I found him examining the stripes on his shirt. Curious to see whether or not he'd been listening when I corrected the mistake he made with 'stick,' I asked him, "what letter does 'stripes' begin with?" Grinning confidently, he exclaimed, "Stripes begins with 'S'!" I'm so happy that Caleb has finally caught on. I know it will only be a matter of time before Joshua catches on, too.