I just wanted to say a few things about Margaret's knowledge of the alphabet, numbers, and now some words.
This is not something we trained her to do or even practiced unless she initiated letter play. We do not have a house full of "educational" toys that teach her these things. Nor do we let her watch many of those baby developmental videos.
What we have done is read to her every night and every day starting when she was about 8 weeks adjusted age. From the beginning she has loved, loved, loved books. She seemed very alert and aware of them from the moment we introduced them. Then her PT brought over a book of the alphabet to entice Margaret during tummy time. That was the beginning of her love affair with letters. She would ask us to read that book over and over... many, many times in a row. I hated it. I hid it, sometimes.
One day her Grandmother told me that she knew some of her letters. I thought she was joking. Margaret was about 8-9 months adjusted at the time. But sure enough, Grandy would ask, "Where is the A?" and Margaret would point to an A on her shirt. I was totally blown away.
Her interest in letters intensified through the months and her first words were the letters of the alphabet. I estimate that she knew the alphabet by 15 months but that is hard to know for sure. A few months ago, I decided to teach her numbers and she learned the digits in a few days. That was the only time I have tried to teach her these things.
At 2 years old, she knows her alphabet, capital and lowercase. I had no idea she knew lowercase until the day I filmed that. She also knows her numbers up to about 17, I think. Could be more by now. She only counts to six or seven but she recognizes the other numbers.
This week she has started to show that she knows some words as well. Go, ball, fly, cat, bug. She really shocks me at times.
I don't think this is anything we have done as parents. I think she just has an incredible visual memory. I admit, though, this is a fun "trick" to show off to the relatives.
(top pic is of her at 8 weeks loving a first book at Christmas time.)
4 comments:
So cool that she is into letters and books. It is amazing to watch! When I was 2 I memorized the book The Fox and the Hound from listening to my parents read it to me so often. My father told my babysitter that I could read, and took out the book. I "read" it and she was astonished! Memorization is amazing, but give yourself more credit, you read to her and play with blocks, you have aided her in her interest and ability. Good work!
I LOVE the picture of her at the top. Oh my goodness, what a sweet heart. You are such a good mommy and have two great kiddos!! I love reading about them :)
Come on now - give yourself more credit! Of course its all your doing - she learned it all from mommmy! :)
I loved the video! Margaret's hair is getting so long, and she has such a cute little voice. What a sweetie.
Out of curiosity, how is her language development coming? Is she talking well also?
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