Calan is almost 2!!! And he is still such a bookworm. We just realized that we haven’t been documenting his reading/speaking as much over the last few months, so here we go:)
As of August 1, Calan has well over 200 words that he uses on his own, without being prompted, that we can understand (although strangers probably wouldn’t), and that he also reads. But the words he says and uses when prompted and the words he reads and understands are hundreds – we’ve completely lost track of those. He also knows all of his letters, numbers 1-10 (although only really good at understanding quantities 1-3, unless he’s counting fingers, then he knows 1-5), and basic colors (red, blue, green, yellow, black, brown, white, purple, orange, pink, and gray). For a while now, he’s also been sounding out new words that we don’t think he’s read or been taught before – he really seems to understand basic sounds and syllables when reading. He also picks up longer, more complicated words when we teach them to him, and remembers them!
He’s right on track with speech, stringing several words together, although awkwardly. Things like “Dada at work” “Play park slide and swing” “Go home get Dada” “Adventure in big car”. For a couple of months or so, he’s also been getting better at reading phrases too (of similar length and complexity), and now consistently reads book titles with surprising accuracy – usually only leaving out words like “the” and “to”. He also takes the initiative and reads some of his favorite books out loud, getting quite a few words/phrases right. But still doesn’t start at the first page and work through consecutively – sometimes he gets close though. And he goes through phases with books – he’ll have a few at a time that he wants to read repeatedly, and he likes to talk a lot about what’s going on in the pictures.
We haven’t counted lately, but he also has a small Spanish vocabulary of words that he reads and understands. But he doesn’t use Spanish unless prompted.
So we’re having lots of fun with our little bookworm:) It really is his favorite thing to do – always before nap or bedtime, once or twice a day together, often while in the stroller or having his diaper changed, and then completely on his own throughout his playtime, as the mood strikes:)