I found a great website that teaches kids to learn different letter sounds. It is starfall.com and Z has been enjoying it for about a month now. I am really happy coz he now knows the sounds of different letters. I highly recommend it to moms who have toddlers because it is educational and at the same time entertaining.
A couple of days ago I tried to teach him two words, Mama and Dad. I wrote it and taught him how to read it. I just had less that 5 minutes with him because he wanted to go out and play. Well this morning, I wanted to try a different technique, by putting word labels of things around our house. Z's interest was piqued as I gathered my materials. I proceeded to write down the word Mama and asked Z to read it. To my delight he was able to read it without me giving any clues! Next I wrote the word Dad and he read it without hesitation too. When I wrote his tito's name - Tito Paolo - he was also able to read it correctly. But this time I was not amused - you know why? Because I haven't taught him that, he was merely guessing! Now I am not sure if he was reading it or just guessing all along. lol! Now our house is filled with labels. Some day I am going to try to shuffle the words and see if he can attach it back to the right object. I hope this works!