It has been said that a big part of learning is through
repetition. I can attest that there is reality in that statement. When I played
tennis in high school, it wasn't just an in-season thing. I would drill all
year long, taking lessons, and hitting ball after ball. That being said, I
never did learn to serve like Rafael Nadal. I didn't even learn to serve like
Serena!
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| I was however able to bounce a ball just as well as Serena did here. |
Ellie is currently in
the midst of learning the same lesson. Just like me in tennis, she's
discovering that learning anything takes time and repetition. It just so
happens that whereas I was learning a physical lesson, Ellie is learning a
mental lesson. What is Ellie's mental lesson you may ask? Easy, she's trying so
hard to teach herself to read.
Now, I realize that statement sounds super ludicrous. For
one, she's only two years old. Although I don't really know when it's realistic
for a kid to begin reading on their own. That hasn't stopped Ellie from trying
though.
Over the past few months, Ellie will occasionally start to
"read" to herself. I have to use the quotation marks because it's
obvious that her "reading" is more like memorization. Although it's
still impressive, it doesn't quite count as reading. It's not entirely a bad
thing though as it seems to be helping her with her newfound interest in letter
recognition. And yes, I can say with absolute certainty that Ellie is very
interested in letter recognition.
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| When one types in 'A B C' and Ken Jeong is the first thing to come up, it's a rule that one must use it. |
Over the past few weeks, Ellie has become very interested in
watching me write on her Magna-Doodle. Specifically, she's become very
interested in watching me write out names. Her name, my name, Mommy's name,
Papa's name, Grandma's name. She even wants me to write out her baby brother's
name. However, she doesn't just want first names; she actually wants first,
middle, and last.
Once the names are written out, she will then go through the
name, letter by letter, wanting me to spell the names aloud. After I do that,
she will then go through and point to the letters that she knows while being
certain to say the sound along with them. I realize this seems like a
relatively isolated incident. However, I can guarantee that is not the case.
During Ellie's naps as of late, I've been doing a lot of
reading. For one it's a lot more fun than sitting around on my phone or
watching Netflix. For another, it's letting me work towards completing the
library's Winter Reading Challenge and therefore being entered into a drawing
for an all-expenses paid vacation. Anyway, when Ellie came downstairs after her
nap, that's what she found me doing. Since I was almost done with my chapter, I
asked her to wait just a moment and then she would have my full attention.
While she patiently waiting for me to complete my reading,
she decided to kill time by hopping up on my lap. There she became intrigued by
the Mizzou t-shirt I was wearing. Here's where it got really surprising for me.
Totally unprompted, she began to rattle off the letters on the t-shirt. M - 1 -
Z - Z - O -U. And yes, she did say the number 1, not an I.
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| Note the 1 and/or I. |
For the record, I do realize that Mizzou is NOT spelled with
the number 1. No one will ever make that mistake. However, the university's
official font does somewhat resemble the number 1 so I'm willing to cut her a
break there. I'm also willing to ignore the fact that she didn't recognize the
Nike logo.
Honestly, I couldn't be more proud of Ellie. I was utterly
shocked and completely impressed that she managed to identify the letters on my
shirt with that amount of ease. It really makes me excited to see what she
identifies next. It also makes me realize that the day is coming when the things
I write will no longer be safe from tiny, prying eyes. Scary, scary.
#DaddyWrite
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