Lydia loves to have us write out names and things, and have us spell them out for her. She also loves to “write,” which writing is little chicken scratches and circles. Today at church she had me write for her, and first I wrote her name, which I spelled out for her. Then I wrote “Mama,” but hadn't spelled it out for her, or said the word Mama, because I was trying to remain quiet during the meeting, seeing that we were sitting on the very front row and center, in front of the speaker who could hear every word Lydia said.
Lydia looked at the word Mama, and then said, “M-a-m-a” very clearly. Then I wrote Daddy, and although Lydia didn't completely spell it out on her own (she can do the D-a, but then the double d's confuse her every time), she did say Daddy without me telling her what I was writing. I maintain that my daughter is a two year old reading genius. Avram points out that letter recognition and spelling out a word we've spelt for her a million times before isn't reading, and although he has the facts on his side, I'm still very impressed by her pre-reading skills.
Also this weekend, yesterday in fact, Elisheva smiled at both Avram and I respectively. These weren't unconscious sleep smiles, either, but full blown grins when she was wide awake. And she's not even three weeks old yet!
Yep, my children are practically ready for Calculus.
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I love children and their new reading skills. The other day our 4-year-old nephew was visiting for lunch. While we were eating, he started spelling for us: "P-O-P. That spells milk! Q-R-T-S-U-V. That spells milk!" (apparently everything spelled milk that day.) Finally, my sister called him on it and says, "Actually, it doesn't." He simply smiled at her brightly and said, "Who cares!"
ReplyDeleteReady begins with just that kind of recognition. Young children can read many things: M&M, pizza, usually their favorite cereals or anything else that comes in a packaged box, STOP, etc. It is environmental literacy. Lydia is well on her way to reading and writing.
ReplyDeleteof course you ahve genious children.. i mean look at the parents!! :) too cute about her reading mama. Porter is really into spelling right now. He will assemple a string of letters such as kjslhioengo and then ask me what the word is.. lol.. so then i have to "read" it to him and he has a good laugh. He does know how to spell his own name ( he typed it in the computer and told me to come and look and it was right!) But at 2 1/2 he did not do that!
ReplyDeleteOh and really, thora, werent you reading at age three?? she just wants to be like her mommy! A little smartie pants! :)
Love you! and I am so happy your internet is working again.
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ReplyDeleteHey Thora, Sarah and Matt assured me (Sarah's little sister--we met once or twice a long time ago) you wouldn't mind if I commented on your blog, so here goes. Both me and my husband are so excited for you two and your little ones to move to Columbus! We are both looking forward to getting to know you better, and Linus (my husband's alias) is looking forward to taking Near-Eastern classes with Avram (at least, he assumes that there will likely be classes that they take together). Anyway, more to the point, I am so excited to have you here and to get to know you. I hope you don't mind I've been reading your blog since Sar told me that you're moving here, and we have a lot of common interests and dare I say quirks. :-) Anyway, I hope you'll consider us family while we're both in the sojourn of grad school in Ohio. We can be shopping buddies -- they have an H&M here, which I love, but of course my boy does not enjoy shopping with me. Not that I do a lot of shopping, but anyway. I'm starting to post my own blog in a comment on yours. Should have emailed. In any event, we can go to the zoo together -- they have a great zoo. And we can just hang out. So looking forward to it. We of course think that you should move into our ward, which is a wonderful family ward with about a third of the membership consisting of grad-student families. It's great. Anyway, if you'd like advice on places to live, let me know! I know of some good complexes that are relatively close to campus (within 10 minutes driving) but still safe and inexpensive (and in our ward!). But then, I suppose I'm biased. Alright, I'll stop now--I hope your readership pardons my blog-comment-abuse.
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