When I discovered how babies learn to read, I began playing this game throughout the day. It is fairly easy to do, since words surround us everywhere. As we go about our day, I point out any and all words that are easy to read, and read them to my baby.

When I wash their hands, I read them the label of the hand soap. When I wash their hair, we read the word shampoo. When I pour their juice we read the label. The same goes for the cereal and anything else that we encounter in our day.

My daughter has learned to read the word luminous from the toothpaste. I showed her the word about 4 times. Each time I read it I told her that luminous means shiny. One night she picked up the tube and pointed to the word and said, “Luminous”.

I asked her what luminous means and she said, “Shiny”. Don’t think that little ones can’t learn big words. She learned the word granulated while reading the bag of sugar.

The Sign Game

One day while were on a long drive down the highway, I began to wonder if children taught to read as infants were reading all the words they encountered mentally, just like you and I do.

Once you know how to read, you do it with no thought. It is actually impossible NOT to read every sign and every word we see. Our brains are processing all the words we see. So what about children who were taught to read as babies?

As we drove, I asked my son if he wanted to play a game. We had to see who could read any words we came across, first. A mad frenzy of shouting began to ensue and points were claimed. One point was issued for each sign that was read. Nothing was ever done with points. They weren’t even kept track of, but none-the-less, he loved it.

I discovered through this little experiment that he was reading all the words he could, and soon he was reading new words as well.

This is still a favorite game of ours. Even my older children want to play it. It just goes to show that children love games, even if they seem beneath them.