We are a little delayed with our reading, the deadline I set is on March next year and it's just a few months away but I'm still happy to say that we've made some progress at last. He has already mastered the sounds of all the letters in the alphabet for quite some time now, thanks to starfall.com but I was at loss on how to actually teach him how to blend those sounds together. When I tried teaching him to read "ba be bi bo bu" he got it in just a few minutes but I knew he wouldn't be able to read it if I scramble it so I made flash cards to make sure he got it. In a few days he got was able to read it. After that I just add a third letter so now he can read the words hat, van, dad, cat, fat, bed, red, and so on. His dad's quite impressed and would plant him a kiss right after successfully reading a word I'm hoping that by March he'll be able to read more complicated words like Tactical Pants!
Last weekend, after going to church we passed by Megamall. As usual, we passed by Toy Kingdom to check the latest toys. We were only planning on buying one educational toy, Z understood that he already have so many toy cars so we wouldn' t be buying any of that. I finally settled for a Philippine map jigsaw puzzle because Z is interested in places and I thought it would be a good idea to educate him about our country without boring him. The jigsaw puzzle costs only P199 ($4) but as we were going to the cashier when we saw this big teddy bear which Z really loves and which he instantly hugged. We were about to pay for the two items but we found out that the stuff toy was on a promo and you can buy it for P230 ($4.70) if your total purchase adds up to P500 ($10). We couldn't resist Z's yearning for the toy so I decided to buy another educational toy, Word Factory, which we can use for his reading. The 3 minute timer that comes with it would be useful too. We got an idea that the stuff toy would be a great Christmas gift to Z so we convinced him to let go of it and we'll just buy it next time. Being the good boy that he is, he obeyed. Unknown to Z, we told the cashier to ring it up without being too obvious but Z caught the cashier putting the bear inside the plastic bag and asked, "Is that for me, mom?" I almost burst out laughing at being caught but held my composure and told him it's not. I know I told a lie but I didn't want to ruin the surprise. We were able to have it gift wrapped without him suspecting anything further and now it's sitting under our Christmas tree and he still has no idea what it is. I can't wait to see the expression on his face when he opens it at Christmas.