Baby Steps to Reading

Sophie has been watching educational television for the last year where they cover phonics. I've been pretty convinced that she could read if she tried. Today she was playing a word search game on my phone and kept asking me what the words said. After a few words I suggested she sound them out. The first word had a non-standard pronunciation but her second word was "cold". She spelled it out and then sounded it out perfectly. I was pretty impressed. She's "read" dog and cat before but I think that is just pattern recognition. Sure, most reading is just pattern recognition but that is after you know how to read. At this stage she needs to sound words out. She'll get to sight words later.