A Tribe Called Whitlock

Kobe, I am guessing, will probably be reading at an earlier age than his other siblings. Not because he is smarter, but because he has big sisters and brothers who are constantly influencing his growth in language throughout the day. While I’m working Natalie plays school with Kobe. She loves to read to him and help him with his sounds and letter identification. I often hear the older kids correcting him when he uses the wrong verbage. At various levels we are working on language through games, homework or good ole debates all day. Siblings definitely make the learning process easier and much more exciting. Our favorite video tool is the DVD by Leap Frog called Letter Factory. When Kobe wants to watch TV we slip that video in. We used this video with both Natalie and Kobe. Not only did they both love it, but they could both identify all their letters along with the corresponding sound within 1-2 months of adding the video to our reading curriculum. We introduced the video to both of them at 3. Natalie was reading before kindergarten. We will see how Kobe does. Natalie has recently discovered Victoria’s old American Girl books. She is currently reading Addie’s series and she loves it! We plan to do lots of journaling through the summer. I have tricked Jordan into doing a Sumner writing activity. He will be starting a book review right here on my blog. I figured it be a good way to boost his creative writing skills while encouraging him to check out the latest tween top sellers. Stay tuned, his first review will be on the Maximum Ride series. Tres will be furthering his writing career by working on his song lyrics. I will be posting some of his finished work as well. Poor Tori does not need any ideas from me. She has a summer reading list about a mile long for her senior AP classes.