Hello everyone!
GiaBaby is at 18-19 months old now. Initially we started with YBCR at about 5 months and Little Reader at about 9 months. We've stopped YBCR a few months ago and are currently on lesson 218 with Little Reader (and that was after restarting the whole program after about lesson 50). GiaBaby up until about a month ago was reading/identifying well over a hundred words. Some words she actually "says" Baby, Dog, Elephant, etc... others she points to via flash cards. 10 - 15 - 20 flash cards in a row correctly. Frankly, incredible stuff.
But........... a little over a month ago we got her these magnetic letters that go on the refrigerator with a base that when each individual letter is pressed into the base it says the letter and it's sound (Similar to this:
http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Fridge-Phonics-Magnetic-Alphabet/dp/B000096QNK). In less than a month GiaBaby has learned all the letters by herself simply by playing with this educational toy. One would think that this a a fantastic thing and I suppose that it is that a 18 month old knows all of her alphabet. The odd thing is that ever since she has started with the letters she doesn't seem to want/or be able to read any more. If I show her the very simple word like DOG, she won't say the word, she seems to ignore it or at best say "D" as in only identifying the first letter and no longer the word. I hope this is phase, but it seems like she's taken 5 steps backwards.
Any one else have any insight?
GiaBaby
P.S.- She has also watched about 20 episodes of the PBS Super WHY! Super Readers show. She actually really loves it. It all seems to reinforce everything that she has learned via YBCR and Brillkids. Though the problem of "not reading anymore" still remains.