introducing digital learning to Rynus for the first time

Remember the famous set of Leapfrog "Tag reader" Books? Being a huge Leapfrog fan family, I couldn't believe we didn't invest on a "Tag reader" pen, but I did borrowed this set of books from my sister when Renzo was 3. And "Casey cat has a hat" is probably the first book Renzo managed to read independently when he was 3+.

So, in less than 2 months time, Rynus is turning 3. Of course I would not miss my chance to put my precious little one to a test, yes, a reading test, just to see how he fares in terms of reading. Again don't get me wrong, I am not interested to compare Rynus with other kids, not even his own brother, it's just a reality check to help me understand him better and see what I can do to help him learn how to read on his own.

He could repeat after me with no problem, but when I pointed at simple rhyming words like "cat", "hat". "bat", etc, he couldn't recognize any of them though he has learned the concept of such rhyming words from Leapfrog "Word Caper" DVD. I am extremely patient with kids and I am extremely good with my phonics (I am not boasting but I learned my phonics well since young and my skill get reinforced after I had Renzo, LOL) . So I am very certain Rynus' "inability to read simple words", has nothing to do with my "high tolerance level", nor "strong knowledge in phonics and blending words". It's pretty obvious that my conventional way of teaching him to read by breaking down the words into syllables and sound them out, is just not working for Rynus! All this while we thought that's the way we taught Renzo to read when he was young, but, we could be wrong.

It took me less than 3 minutes to decide on the next course of action. I went straight to download a simple spelling app onto my android phone, leaving Daddy Chan in shock because he knows that I am not in favor of letting kids hold on to mobile devices. I totally couldn't stand kids with their eyes glued onto digital screens at dining tables so although Rynus is hard to pacify when he's outside, I've never resorted to iphone/ipad. Renzo used to spend a lot of time on ipad educational apps when he was 1.5 - 3 years old, and I had to remove ipad from his daily routine when he started to get hooked onto ipad games after he turned 4. So for Rynus, from day one, I made it very clear that he's only allowed to watch educational DVDs on TV, and that's it.

But this time, I realized my own expectation of getting Rynus to read based on a good book for young readers, doesn't seem to be too realistic and feasible. You might think I am asking for too much from a 3 years old. But in all honesty, I know my kids well and Rynus has mastered his 26 letters and their phonic sounds for at least a year, with my experience in coaching Renzo, I am very optimistic that by now, Rynus should be able to read, well at least simple words like "cat", "hat" and "bat" should not be too challenging for him after a few rounds of practicing. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way and that made me think again, about how Renzo learned to read when he was at this age?!!

The answer is, maybe, just maybe, spelling is the foundation that helps kids to read independently. That's just my thought because through spelling, they get to break down words to first, middle, and last sound (for basic 3 letter words), and blend them together to spell it out, which in essence, helps them to read those words eventually. And the fact is, Renzo has spent at least 6 - 10 months purely on spelling 3 letter words. Here's a video of him doing it on ipad when he was only 1 year 10 months old.

So, for the very first time, Rynus got to experiment a mobile apps. It didn't take him long to figure out how to use a phone though he was struggling a bit with the touch screen at times. He has not really grasped the concept of middle sound and last sound, I can tell he's doing very well with his first sound. I mentioned in Renzo's blog before, most kids learn the concept of first and last sound before they could figure out the middle sound. For now, I only allow him to play with this app for 10 minutes a day, if, and only if he asks for it. Here's a video of him doing his spelling and victory balloon popping!

I have to admit that maybe in this modern era, it's just inevitable to expose kids to modern technologies, and it's even possible that many kids could only absorb well through such kind of digital interface and digital learning. Rynus was bouncing off the walls when he spelt his words out and got rewarded with a balloon. That's something he doesn't get through holding on and reading from a physical book. But of course we are still putting in efforts to read to, and read with him. Over the past decade, the use of technology in children’s education has exploded, and there are now literally thousands of tablet and smartphone apps created to help kids learn in more interactive and entertaining ways. The debate about using apps for educational purposes is still ongoing, but despite any supposed drawbacks for children, I do see the benefits in digital learning so for now, we are just going to introduce educational apps gradually to Rynus' learning routine, of course with proper control..

his progress in academics, is pretty much like his brother..

This morning, as usual I was chit chatting with my sister about academics and we somehow touched on the topic that academics is not everything, though it's definitely important. I had to confess, I always claim that I am not a tiger mummy and I don't like to force my kids to study, looking at the kids' blogs, it's not hard to find there are many posts and photos about their academics for sure. So yes, I cannot simply relax and let them enjoy a childhood without grilling them a bit on their studies.

But, for Rynus, let's just say we did cut him some slack from day one, just look at how often we talk about his academics here as compared to on Renzo's blog. It could be due to 2nd child syndrome, but also, it could be the fact that Renzo was rather fast in learning and Rynus didn't show much interest till he's about 2.5 years old.

Recently, I start to notice more and more frequently about Rynus' hunger and curiosity for knowledge. He's been repeating the songs he learned at childcare center everyday, though 70% of the time I couldn't understand him as his articulation is still not too clear yet. He tries to speak in full sentences and get extremely excited when we could understand him. He enjoys watching Renzo doing his homework though sometimes he might mark his presence by messing up with Renzo's worksheet. He mumbles and recites and sings along with Dora, Thomas and Tad (from Leapfrog) countless times a day. He gets involved with our conversation with every possible means and seems to enjoy that a lot. He grabs books and reads with us, asks for puzzles and number games during bedtime.


And starting from about 2 weeks ago, he suddenly gripped on his pencil and started to scribble, from numbers to letters to shapes and fruits, I had to dig out the old posts on Renzo's blog about his first writing exercise at home, to confirm that Rynus indeed started writing proper letters/numbers earlier than his brother. That, is quite a surprise to me, because so far besides walking, he's been slower in achieving all his development milestones as compared to Renzo. But that, also serves as a great reminder that every single child is unique in their own way, even for our own kids, we shall never compare them.

Well not to compare the boys, they do have very distinctive characteristics of their own. But interestingly, when comes to academics, they share so much in common!! They both love numbers and alphabets to the extend that they can watch Leapfrog DVDs till they could recite the scripts. They don't even fancy the usual cartoons or movies. They both mastered all alphabets and their phonics sounds, as well as counting from 1-100 before their childcare starts teaching them. They both enjoy reading bus numbers and could easily spend 30 minutes at the bus stop watching buses come and go,  making small cheers after getting their bus number right each time, including the "Off Service" bus!! There's one time Rynus made his favorite bus number "518"with number blocks, my mother saw that and immediately recalled when Renzo was 2, he did the exact same thing but he made "34" instead as that's the bus brings him to his childcare daily back then.

Here's a video of Rynus chanting his alphabets and he memorized that after reading them from an alphabet chart for less than 2 weeks.

So believe it or not, I think at least for academics, our children's learning behavior and learning habit, could be a direct result of our parenting style. Because we are using the exact same way to coach and influence the 2 boys at home and so far the results are pretty much similar despite them having pretty opposite personalities. So for almost 6 years we've been investing time and efforts to learn to be better parents, and help our kids build strong foundation, cultivate their interest and great habit in learning. So far the result is still quite promising based on our experience with Renzo, and I definitely hope what worked for Renzo, will work for Rynus too!