Most people don't remember that first time letters became words for them. That first time you really understood what adults had been doing all along. I still can remember it as though it just happened. I sat on my bed with my copy of One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish on my lap, it was just one of many books I had memorized. I "read" the title page the way I always had but something just connected when I turned to the first page. I realized the second word on each line was the same group of letters, fish. I can remember the excitement I felt seeing and understanding that first word. I used the phonetics I knew together with the pictures to identify the other words from the book. It took me a while but I figured out every word in that book.
