Today, my 20mo read her first word... I'm of course excited and so happy that she's finally letting me know that she knows.. it's always nice to have feedback
But more than everything, I am amazed at how it happened.
Since I don't have time to do LR French categories anymore, I decided to create a few flashcards. The ones I made were over 6 month old and I was no longer using them.
I decided to include my daughter in the process: I wrote and cut the flashcards next to her on the couch and I asked her which words she wanted me to write. (she was watching some cartoons and I can't say that she was really interested in what I was doing)
I thought of all the new words she'd been saying recently and decided to write those.
I would simply say "See, I'm writing the word doll, uncle etc etc." Lastly I thought of a word, out of the blue, that she hadn't said yet and wrote Robot.
This was this morning and tonight, just before going to bed, I showed her the words but I did not 'flash' per se, I showed them at my own pace and the last one was ROBOT, and I heard a little voice saying 'wobo'. I was so surprised, I asked her to repeat and she said it again, 'wobo' (the French R is hard to say for a child, and the last letter is silent)
So I'm deducting from this experience that:
-Children only need to look at a word once, and very briefly to remember it.
-That they tend to pay more attention to words they do not know.
I'll change 'tactics' and only show her words she does not know from now on.
Take care everyone and keep teaching your babies!