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Again about Ana....
Mar. 2nd, 2007 12:18 am
Somebody is really eager to read. She routinely stops me when I s-p-e-l-l things o-u-t and asks "What does that mean?". She is more than ever asking to read stories too us, carefully running her finger under the words.
And today? She sat down with a pen and a piece of paper and wrote a note. She wrote her name in it, and then carefully made a (long!) series of uniformly small shapes and scribbles, grouped neatly into "words". IN LINES. I can't write as neat as that, even with lined paper!
In addition, she set aside some space where she made clear, pre-writing shapes. Series of curves, of lines. She even made a few letters.
Her favorite activity, she asks to do this every day, is to go on my computer to play "her game". Starfall.com - lots of cute little flash games about letter sounds. And I don't think she's "being fooled into learning" - she does realize she's learning something, and she wants more of it.
It's a little frightening. It really came on all of a sudden, it seems.
Edit: Naturally, of course, I make this post while simultaneously trying to convince somebody that three year olds don't need to know their letters or numbers, that there's far more important skills to learn (especially in the context of preschool readiness). For that matter, while Ana seems to be slightly ahead in this area, she's a bit behind in a few of the things I think are more crucial for preschool. Like anything that involves participation... she can, at least some of the time, but that doesn't mean she will. I didn't realize how much she avoids participating in things until I realized that Su, at 2, joined in everything. And then I saw that Su is the more normal one here. (Su tends to be scarily bright, so I don't look to her for examples!) Ana's getting much better at this social stuff, especially in groups, but she's still not quite where the other kids are. (And that's fine - my family, we're not exactly joiners. My mother was startled that I even considered this a potential problem, since Jenn and I were apparently both "just like that". This was half a year ago.)
And today? She sat down with a pen and a piece of paper and wrote a note. She wrote her name in it, and then carefully made a (long!) series of uniformly small shapes and scribbles, grouped neatly into "words". IN LINES. I can't write as neat as that, even with lined paper!
In addition, she set aside some space where she made clear, pre-writing shapes. Series of curves, of lines. She even made a few letters.
Her favorite activity, she asks to do this every day, is to go on my computer to play "her game". Starfall.com - lots of cute little flash games about letter sounds. And I don't think she's "being fooled into learning" - she does realize she's learning something, and she wants more of it.
It's a little frightening. It really came on all of a sudden, it seems.
Edit: Naturally, of course, I make this post while simultaneously trying to convince somebody that three year olds don't need to know their letters or numbers, that there's far more important skills to learn (especially in the context of preschool readiness). For that matter, while Ana seems to be slightly ahead in this area, she's a bit behind in a few of the things I think are more crucial for preschool. Like anything that involves participation... she can, at least some of the time, but that doesn't mean she will. I didn't realize how much she avoids participating in things until I realized that Su, at 2, joined in everything. And then I saw that Su is the more normal one here. (Su tends to be scarily bright, so I don't look to her for examples!) Ana's getting much better at this social stuff, especially in groups, but she's still not quite where the other kids are. (And that's fine - my family, we're not exactly joiners. My mother was startled that I even considered this a potential problem, since Jenn and I were apparently both "just like that". This was half a year ago.)
