Maybe this is just me being a proud papa or something, but I’m pretty blown away by what my 4yo has been doing lately. I know that younger siblings tend to learn faster because of the influence of their older siblings, but still…
Today while we were driving around, K-, my 4yo, wanted to write a letter to a little pal of hers. So she took a pad of paper and a pen and, as we drove, asked me how to spell the words in the sentences she wanted to write.
“I love you. You are my best friend. I want to play with you soon.”
Of course, it looked more like
I
LOVEYOUYOUAREMYB
ESTFRIENDIWANT
TOPL
AYWITHYOUSOON
but, still, for a 4yo to be able to do this? She did great, except for the letter “S” which she asked someone to help her with. 🙂
A few days ago, she also surprised me. I took her to Red Robin for lunch, it’s one of her favorite places and while the quality of the food is at best mediocre, it’s not terrible. And, frankly, the food on the kids menu at most restaurants stinks anyway…
So, we’re at Red Robin and on the kid’s menu there’s a word search and you can imagine my surprise when she starts doing the word search and actually finding words.
I was astonished. She can’t read, but clearly she’s mastering letter shapes and is just doing basic pattern matching, but still, at 4, she’s succeeding at word searches!
Whatever the explanation, I am impressed and delighted with her and can only imagine how fast she’ll be learning new things as she zooms through her childhood.
Now, the real question is can I keep up? 🙂
I wish I could bottle that feeling of pride and astonishment. Congratulations on your little writer there!
Just the other day I was shocked to discover that Lucian can now log in to his iMac after only a couple of instructions via repetition. His login is of course, just called lucian with the little soccer ball as the icon because he can point to it and say “ball.” Instead of trying to navigate with the mouse to point and click, I showed him how to press ‘L’ and ‘return’ on the keyboard. Now he does it without instruction. He’s freakin TWO!! This is scary. Good scary though, you know what I mean. Maybe our kids can write to each other as soon as Lucian masters holding a pen!
Wow. sounds like she is learning fast. Although I have no experience as my daughter is only 4 months but it sounds exciting. I am just amazed when my daughter responds when I talk to her. Usually she sticks out her tongue, blows bubbles and makes a silly noise. Whatever, it is still exciting.
Your child sure learns fast! 😀 It’s amazing how kids bring joy to their parents! We teach them simple things and then they surprise us with the way they apply those lessons. Your last question “can I keep up?” is also close to my heart. As kids grow, they will also need to learn housekeeping, doing assignments, and obeying their parents. But those would have to come later. 😀
Wow! Word searches at 4? That’s serious bragging rights.
Wow! That’s impressive. I think it’s worth celebrating our kids successes because it’s so easy to obsess over the things our kids can’t do that somehow we feel responsible for as parents.
What a joy to find your site! these stories are an antidote to the usual stressed out and anxious rants by parents who are frantically pushing their kids.