Learning to Read

Bet you didn't expect this post to be about Maya did you?  Yes, Hannah is also learning to read, and I will have to post a bit about her sometime, but I just had to share something that happened while I was cleaning this morning.

Maya had asked if she could watch Super Why. Now, if I let her, Maya would seriously watch TV ALL day.  She's a lot like Addison in that respect.  So I do try and limit what she watches.  And of the few shows I let her watch, Super Why is her favorite.  I like it too.  It teaches kids about letters, the sounds letters make, words, rhyming words, etc.  I needed to get some cleaning done in the kitchen, so I told her yes and turned it on for her.

I was listening to the show from the kitchen, and when Super Why asked the viewer what letters s/he saw on screen, Maya yelled, "N, T!"  Sure enough, a few seconds later, Super Why said, "N, T."  I went around the corner to see if she could do it again.

The next question that was asked was, "What letter makes the sound lllllll."  Maya yelled, "L!"

Not gonna lie, I was a little blown away.  Hannah is just now really learning her letters and what sounds they make, I can't believe my two year old is catching on so fast.  I think she really is talented when it comes to linguistics though...well, as talented as a two year old can be.  :)  She speaks very clearly and in surprisingly long sentences. I can't believe that a year ago I was worried that she wasn't speaking as well as I thought she should be.  Now it wouldn't surprise me if this one was reading (at least basic words) within a year. 

A Style All Her Own

So I pretty much let Addison and Hannah pick out their own clothes.  Most of the time anyway.  I do give occasional advice, "Usually people don't wear tights as pants." And sometimes I force them to change clothes, "No, you may not wear flip flops.  There's four inches of snow out there!"  (Sometimes I think being a Californian may be hereditary).    And every so often...mostly when I actually have some sort of formal picture plans for the day...I will choose an outfit for them.  But really, about 95% of the time, I just let them wear whatever the heck they choose to put on.

I have several reasons for this.  First of all, when I was a kid, I always hated when people made me wear something.  Whether I liked the outfit or not, I hated being told what to wear.  So I try to interfere as little as possible.

Also, I'm lazy.  Usually I just tell the girls to go down stairs and get dressed, and pray that they don't find the flip flops I hid when it began snowing.  I am busy enough getting the twins ready in the morning, the more the older girls can do for themselves the better.

And finally, I really enjoy seeing what outfits my kids come up with.  Some times I find it humorous, sometimes impressive, and sometimes mind boggling.

Lately I have especially enjoyed seeing the outfits Hannah has come up with.  Bart calls her Punky Brewster.  He loves the crazy quirky ensembles she comes up with. Her latest trend is wearing swimsuits over top of her clothes.  It happened several times before spring break, and then again this morning.  But today, at bedtime, when she came up with last year's swim suit over top of her warm winter pajamas, I decided it was time to take a picture.

As Bart pointed out (between hysterical fits of laughter), "At least nobody's going to think we're the ones who dress her."

Interesting Perspectives

Hannah is quite the girly girl.  If you put her in a room with nail polish and lip gloss, I think she might be happy for the rest of her life.

The other day, Addison came home from a friend's house with painted nails.  When Hannah woke up from her nap and noticed, it was pretty much the end of the world at our house.  She was inconsolable.  Not only had her sister gone to a friends house without her, but she had painted her nails while she was there!  I believe her exact words were, "This is the worst day ever!!!" 

I frantically searched our house for nail polish (I am not a girly girl), and finally found some little kid stuff that is really more glue and glitter than real nail polish, but it did the trick.  I set Hannah up on my bathroom counter, Gave her the "nail polish" and told her she could paint her nails all by herself.  She looked at me in amazement and asked, "Really?  All by my self?!?!"  When I assured her, "Yep, all by yourself."  She grabbed the bottle from me and had at it.
 






 
When she was finally finished, she sighed, took a good look at her handiwork, and said, "Mom, this is the best day ever."  I love how quickly a three-year-old's perspective can change.  



I took a little bit of a different approach for this month's blog circle theme.  Now head on over to Misty's blog to check out her "Interesting Perspectives."