Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Learning curve

Almost every afternoon I do preschool with Isaiah. Mostly it's simple things like shapes, comparisons, and colors. But the other day, we worked at the alphabet. Isaiah is very good at recognizing letters and names most of them quite well. Seeing that he already had the hang of memorizing letters, I started teaching him the sounds the letters make. So I would say cheesy things like, "A is for a-a-a-a-apple" and "D is for duh-duh-duh-duh-dog" and make the sounds. Isaiah seemed to think this was great and was happy to repeat the sounds with me.

Meanwhile, Joshua is in the phase of his language development that he can repeat (or try to repeat!!) different words. It's so cute to see what he comes up. "More, please" is "Moo-are, eeze." Some days he does better than others, but he really loves to talk and copy. So throughout the day, I prompt Joshua, "Say, bye-bye" "Say, Thank-you" etc. Isaiah frequently helps me teach Josh and is always asking Joshua to repeat things too.

Now, remembering that Isaiah has "learned" the sounds letters make and also loves teaching Josh, I overheard this "instructional lesson" this morning:

Isaiah: "Joshua, can you say, Bubble?"
Joshua: "Buh-bull"
Isaiah: "Good, Josh! Can you say, Trucks?"
Joshua: "Trux"
Clearly satisfied with Joshua's skills, Isaiah tries to take it up a notch.
Isaiah: "Joshua, can you say buh-buh-buh-buh-orange?"

I cracked up. :) Oh well. I guess Isaiah likes saying the sounds, but doesn't get that the sound is supposed to be the first part of the word!! Hopefully he'll figure it out before Joshua starts thinking that "orange" starts with a "B" sound.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh what a sweet story! I can see Isaiah right now standing over Josh!
LOL!

Grandma said...

Oh, Kathryn! Grandpa and I laughed when we read this post. It reminds me so much of teaching you and your siblings the same things. It also reminds me of my sister, Heather. Heather, when she was very young, could not wrap her tongue around the sound of the letter "L". She would always say to my mom, "I nov you." My Mom would tell her that the word was not "nov" but
L-L-L-L Love, Love with an "L". Sometime later, Heather figuring she knew exactly how to tell Mom that she loved her would say: "I nov you with an "L". A sweet memory, and now I shall smile everytime I see a buh-buh-buh orange. Thanks for sharing!

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