Monday I got some foam alphabet letters and started out with an Apple and the letter A. "Aaaaaple" I told her, "touch the apple!" And she did. I made some phonetic A sounds and held up the foam A... she figured out what A is. I did the same with B - blue, broccoli, banana. Done, like a champ. "Which one of these starts with B?" I asked, holding up an apple and a banana. And she chose the banana.
Tuesday I taught her C -- Car, Cup. She got that one figured out really well, and yesterday I taught her E. (I've lost our foam D.) E was tough. I was out of eggs, and she couldn't figure out the ear thing ("Can you touch mommy's ear?"), so I showed her pictures and movies of elephants and now she's all excited about elephtants. Of course, Ellie starts with E too, and her name has a short and long vowel sound :D
Language acquisition is weird. There's so much to it! Now I understand why parents read to their children--to familiarize them with a world they rarely or never see--tigers, elephants, donkeys, ducks. And there are alphabet and letter books because children see and interact with numbers and letters to help them acquire the working knowledge of them.
Language brings the world to life. Ellie seems delighted to learn what things are. Now I tell her, "Touch the Car! Cah-caaar!" And that object has a name, and that name starts with a C.
Most surprising to me is her ability to interact with electronics. She's learning foam letters--but I got flashcards on my cell phone, and if I hold up a B foam letter and the Cc flash card on my phone, and tell her to choose the "Cuh!" sound, she actually touches the C on the phone.
So it brings me to other thoughts. Children's window of learning language really is 1-4 years old, and by puberty, that window of learning has nearly closed. It's much harder to learn a second language as a teenager than as a two year old. Ellie is four, and although she seems to have a passion for learning, as a cockatoo girl in puberty, I wonder to what extent her ability to learn will be hampered by the 'lateness' of our reading exercises.
It's also interesting how very much of the world that she doesn't know--lions, donkeys, ducks--is part of her reading world. Part of teaching her letters is teaching her objects and animals that she'll never see in real life. We definitely got hung up on "C is for Cat" since she's never seen one before. (I almost called a neighbor to see if we could play with her cats for the afternoon." It's no wonder, as mentioned, babies are flooded with books and objects and cartoons.)
I've bought wall cards with the alphabet for her, and am considering a floor mat.
I have no idea how far this will go. For all I know, she's got short term memory and can remember a handful of letters at a time, but it'll be interesting to play with it, and we're both excited about the challenge :) I have a hunch she will surprise me with her ability to grasp language and phonics and reading... my strangely brilliant cockatoo girl.
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