12/10: The Penny Drops
One of the absolute joys of being a parent is witnessing those jaw-dropping moments in your child's life when suddenly they just get how to do something. You can show them something new time and time again, but most of the time it seems that the penny just drops when they're good and ready.
Today we've had not one but two jaw-dropping moments.
Back at the end of August I mentioned that we'd been doing a few activities to help Jess with pencil control, but I really wasn't expecting to start trying to write letters (other than o and i) with her for a long time. When I picked Jess up from playgroup at lunchtime today, the playgroup leader was very keen to show me what Jess had been up to. Along with the huge stack of paintings was this worksheet that she'd done. Shows how much I know. She can already write more legibly than Daddy.
Tonight Geoff was reading to Jess at bedtime - she'd picked a couple of books, and while he was reading her the first one, 'Spot Goes to School', I asked her to show me where the word 'Spot' was, to see if she could still do it. She pointed it out correctly, then pushed the book away, picked up 'We Have Fun' (book 2a from the Ladybird Keywords Reading Scheme), flicked through a few pages, and then read out and pointed to the words 'Peter', 'Jane', 'Pat' and 'play'.
Geoff and I gawped helplessly at each other for a few seconds.
We've been reading the Keywords books to Jess for a while, mostly because she seems to like the (very dated) pictures. To be honest, the repetition and non-existant storylines were driving us potty, but Jess will usually choose one or two of them each night. We do follow the words with our fingers sometimes (when Jess lets us!) but we haven't really put any emphasis on LEARNING the words as we wanted to encourage rather than push her.
But that shared moment of realising that Jess gets reading will be something I never forget.
And she's still only 2. We must be the proudest parents on the planet right now.
Today we've had not one but two jaw-dropping moments.
Back at the end of August I mentioned that we'd been doing a few activities to help Jess with pencil control, but I really wasn't expecting to start trying to write letters (other than o and i) with her for a long time. When I picked Jess up from playgroup at lunchtime today, the playgroup leader was very keen to show me what Jess had been up to. Along with the huge stack of paintings was this worksheet that she'd done. Shows how much I know. She can already write more legibly than Daddy.
Tonight Geoff was reading to Jess at bedtime - she'd picked a couple of books, and while he was reading her the first one, 'Spot Goes to School', I asked her to show me where the word 'Spot' was, to see if she could still do it. She pointed it out correctly, then pushed the book away, picked up 'We Have Fun' (book 2a from the Ladybird Keywords Reading Scheme), flicked through a few pages, and then read out and pointed to the words 'Peter', 'Jane', 'Pat' and 'play'.
Geoff and I gawped helplessly at each other for a few seconds.
We've been reading the Keywords books to Jess for a while, mostly because she seems to like the (very dated) pictures. To be honest, the repetition and non-existant storylines were driving us potty, but Jess will usually choose one or two of them each night. We do follow the words with our fingers sometimes (when Jess lets us!) but we haven't really put any emphasis on LEARNING the words as we wanted to encourage rather than push her.
But that shared moment of realising that Jess gets reading will be something I never forget.
And she's still only 2. We must be the proudest parents on the planet right now.
