Basic Reading

So she knows her letters and their sounds really well, and she has the concept of "sounding it out" from the Leap Frog video The Talking Words Factory. She isn't great at sounding it out, yet, but she is interested, and so we're working on it. Recently I made groups of flash cards, using the Hop on Pop book for word ideas. One group I made had the words hop, pop, stop, on, and no. I should have left out no, because the "o" says a long "o" sound instead of a short "o" sound. Otherwise it went fabulous. I showed her the word pop and we sounded it out. Then the other words in turn. She would assimilate the word on the page into her understanding out loud, saying things like, "Hop! Like a bunny hops!" and "Pop! like popcorn!" I thought that was great - it showed she was truly reading, not just putting together sounds. Then I gave her a simple sentence - "Hop on pop." She was totally tickled that she could read it. Then we did "Stop!" I meant it to be "Stop, don't hop on pop," but she said something else like, "Stop! Like you are at a red light and you have to stop!" Another group of words from the Hop on Pop book is cat, hat, bat, and I think mat. Also ball, wall, fall, and all. When we've done all the words from the book, I'm going to let her read it!