Meet the Sight Words

I've shared on more than one occasion just how much Kaiser loves the Preschool Prep Meet the ______ videos. Meet the Letters was a big factor in him learning his ABCs, Meet the Shapes helped him identify his shapes, and Meet the Numbers and Meet the Colors taught him...well, you know. 

Before Porter was born, I ordered Kaiser the set of three Meet the Sight Words videos. For those wondering what exactly "sight words" are, they are high-frequency words, many of which don't follow basic decoding rules, that young children need to be able to recognize instantly (instead of figuring them out) in order to become a good reader. The DVDs arrived shortly after Baby Brother, and Kaiser took to them instantly. He finds opportunities throughout the day to say, "We'll watch Meet the Sight Words!" and when I tell him, "Not right now," he'll reply with, "Maybe soon." On the evenings when Brett is working late or on call overnight, I get Kaiser bathed and ready for bed and let him sit on the couch and watch one while I feed and lay Porter down for the night. It's a special treat that he definitely looks forward to.

I didn't know what to expect in terms of him retaining what he was watching, but I guess based upon our experiences with the previous DVDs, I should have known he would be a good student. :) Kaiser recently received some tub crayons from his friend Nell, and he has been asking to "practice sight words" during bathtime. I decided to make up some flashcards for him to look at, as well, and yesterday I got some footage of him identifying the words. 

There are 47 words, so this video is almost eight minutes long. Kaiser obviously doesn't have them all down, but I was shocked at just how many he has already learned. There are several instances when he just spouts out a word without really looking at the card, so I encourage him to look more carefully at the word again. Oh, and when he and I talk about things like a hammer, helicopter, campfire, lizard, train, whale, and bulldozer, we are referring to the "characters" that the words are in the videos.

Though Mommy of course loves every second of this clip, I have to say, my favorite part is what the kiddo says at the very end. :)