Firsts
Yesterday Valerie went in the shower for the first time. It’s was the Best Day Ever, and there’s weren’t even any Hill People or kidnappings involved. Sadie wasn’t as impressed with her first time in the shower.
Yesterday Sadie shot her first slug.
That is, we rehooked up her computer at the office, which is the same old 386 with DOS and a bunch of DOS games on it that we setup before there was a Sadie. She was more into the keybanger program than she’d been in the past, but I decided to show her Commander Keen (4, arguably the best of them). So I played quickly through the first two levels and tried to show her the controls. Then played with another level and let her bang on keys, wherein she shot one of the slugs that was approaching. I also left it sitting at the main map for a while, and she managed to get into one of the game levels. She was hopelessly fascinated, even if she didn’t understand the distinction in keys to control things and stuff yet.
What we need is something like a keybanger, but one that responds differently depending on the key you press. Even if it’s to show a large version of the letter, maybe say the letter, and show something it stands for. Or else the world’s most forgiving game or game-like program for a toddler.
Speaking of letters, nobody has made serious attempts to teach Sadie the alphabet or anything yet. So it is freaky to watch her stand by the bookcase, pointing at letters on the spine of books, making letter-like sounds, including sometimes distinct sets like “eee eff gee.” We’re like “no way, can’t be.”
This from the kid who makes up her own words for stuff, most notable gee with a hard G sound for candy. As I always say, “gui, it’s not just for karate anymore.” She also holds animated conversations between her ducks and sometimes other critters, occupying some rich fantasy world.
But books? Letters? She doesn’t even care that much for being read to anymore, whereas Valeries loves it more than Sadie ever did.
dude, I was just two when I started reading… It’s not too early.
Posted by caltechgirl on 06/19 at 02:13 PM"Gee” might be her closest approximation of “candy”. Some kids fixate on a small set of consonant sounds for a while—my little brother used “d"s for almost every word he spoke for nearly a year, including his own (d-less) name.
Sadie’s brilliance continues to impress.
Posted by Ian on 06/21 at 12:03 PM
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