I was driving down 283 this morning listening to the Maccabeats with Isabelle in the backseat. We were approaching the exit for Rte. 743 when I heard her yell out from the back seat, “Kahklit Whd.” My ears perked up. I sat up higher in my seat and looked in the rearview mirror so I could see her. She was pointing to the road sign that said Elizabethtown and Hershey.
“What did you say?” I asked Isabelle.
“Kahklit Whd!” she repeated as she continued to point to the sign.
But this isn’t the exit we take when we go to Chocolate World. Did she really just read the sign that said Hershey and make the connection that that’s where Chocolate World is?!!?
“Is that because it said ‘Hershey’ on the sign?”
“Yes!” she replied.
OMG! This can’t be happening. She’s not even three and she just read her first word!??!
Later in the day I spoke with my daughter’s teacher and my mother-in-law, who is a retired Reading Recovery Teacher, and told them what happened. They agreed that Isabelle did, in fact, read her first word on the sign! For some reason I didn’t trust myself to believe that that’s what happened. I trusted she was interpreting environmental print when she said “Bar-buh” for “Starbucks” when she saw the Siren on a rest stop sign when we drove down the highway a few months ago. But today’s events were something I needed to confirm with other people.
While Isabelle didn’t say “Hershey,” she used visual clues to help her read the word Hershey, which is where Chocolate World is, hence the response of “Kahklit Whd!” Wow! Wow! Wow! I am amazed.
Raising Literate Humans 
Oh how fun! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful and exciting day! Bravo Isabel! Wow.
Since Isabelle has been immersed with books and wonderful language experiences from infancy on, this is what happens! I am so proud of her and Stacey for working so hard with Isabelle. Your efforts are definitely paying off. Now if more parents would put in the time and effort, we would have far less struggling readers today.
Pretty exciting. She remembers so much about the books you read, so I’m not surprised. You’ve given her such a background in details and ‘reading’ them. Fun to hear, Stacey!
That is amazing!! So proud of her!
So adorable!
I read your post and got a bit teary as I remembered waiting at the Volkswagon dealer with my then almost 3 year old. She kept looking at the booklets and signs saying, “Not Suzy (her name).” Later that night, as she showed her dad her “treasure” from the repair shop pointing to and sort-of “reading” the word Volkswagon as “Not Suzy” and proudly pointing to her name reading “Suzy.” I’m pretty sure I put that moment into her baby book (what we kept long ago before blogs!)
Hold this memory – and all of them – close to your heart!