emergent writing...

i never saw this w my eldest. he learned to read and then write words and sentences upon my prompting. they increased in length very slowly. for him there was no real reason behind learning to read n write, except that it was part of the learning syllabus. what was more important to him, was learning to ride bike, skateboard, swim, rollerblade, climb and swing with the greatest of ease and dexterity.

now along comes the second one. she was barely speaking when she started rhyming words, and we remember so clearly how amusing she found it when she 1st realised that the same word cd hv 2 different meanings...  now more than 2yrs hv past since then, and i see her trying to read e signs around us. i know a friend's elder kid who did this before, and it seemed such a novelty... esp cos it's something that ky just never did. you'd think it wd be the rt way to go... but for some kids it just doesnt happen.

so for us to suddenly have it coming from kay...well, it *is* a novelty... something that's quite sweet and amazing... so it's something we want to take note of, to remember...

a few months back kay sat with a remote-controlled car in hand,  muttering to herself... "o-f-f. off!... o-n. on!... no-woooonderrr!!  mama, no wonder the battery's flat!... the switch has been left *on* aaalll this time!!!" we all had to grin at her monumentous discovery! :)

now e last few weeks she's been writing little notes ard e house now and then...

a msg on e whiteboard, left for me, with a rocket alongside, read: "kayla fwom". 

a picture a few days later read: "fr mam kayla luv".   

a few days later it had progressed to: "luv kayla for mama".

yesterday she'd drawn a number-guessing game for us. she'd traced circles with numbers inside, that she wanted us to match up to other circles with number words. she didnt get very far... i was busy in the kitchen and i heard her arguing with ky about the spelling of "1". , she was trying to write it down, but ky was trying to correct her 'spelling' she complained. "he's all wrong mama!... yr so silly! that's not right!...

"no, no, no, it's not like that! you're so silly! how can u spell it 'o-n-eeee'. that's not right ya mama?!"

me: "how do u think u shd spell it kay?"

kay: "w-u-n".

me: "then go ahead and write it!"

ky: "but muuuuum!"

me: "she's doing child's writing, and that's ok" :)

now these last few days she's been writing little armbands for her stuffed animals... "for lion luv kayla".

today she battled over the word "someone", and "why 'is' is spelled i-s and not i-z?"

...after lights-out i found 2 yellow scraps of post-it notes stuck on an old empty McD kiddy-box on the entrance-hall floor...

"it it for sumwun" it read.

so i opened e box. inside was a little yellow washcloth neatly folded, with another scrap of post-it which read, "it is for lion" on one side, and "cub xxxxx" on the other. that is when i spotted her little lion cub lying on the floor beside where the box had been.  e gift was clearly not for me... :) so i re-packaged it quietly and set it back beside it's rightful owner :) ...while e sender sleeps e deepest sleep, oblivious of my discoveries...

i like these....

and i remember doing the same when i was a wee little girl!