much of the art around our house has naturally given way to the written word. by that i mean that N has developed a curiosity about how to phonetically spell everything, so much of what she is working on drawing right now comes with captions.
i want a turquoise and red dress!
N began writing her name fairly early in her career as a human (2y 8m.) before her 3rd birthday, she had taught herself to write each letter of the alphabet, and how to spell MOM and DAD. a few months before her 4th birthday, she began phonetically sounding out and spelling pretty much any word she was curious about. (this is happening more often than her wanting to read the words she sees in books, though she does read street signs quiet often.)
"the dragon is looking for us foxes in this alone room" written while playing alone in her room on feb 20
N goes to a play-based preschool, and we haven’t emphasized learning to read and write in our house yet either, so this is a thread that sprang up organically for her that she chose to follow. in fact, we, as parents, are more aligned with the waldorf education’s view of postponing reading and writing until the brain has developed into it (for many kids, that’s around age 7.) N will begin attending waldorf school this fall. the parenting passageway (such a great blog!) published this excellent post on why waldorf teaches reading at a later age… and how to support “early readers” in all aspects of their lives.
N wrote out the happy birthday song while alone in her room on daddy's bday. i love how she spells from "FRUM"
we try to support N’s natural inclination of reading and writing now as best we can, while holding a holistic perspective and helping her to achieve balance among all areas of her development. so when N shows us how she wrote out a sentence, it usually goes something like this at home: “wow! great work! now let’s go run around outside!” she runs around outside… uh, and writes out there.
she plays alone in her room and digs out some melissa and doug blocks so she can spell.
penguins, phonetically
she tries to sound out (and nearly correctly spells!) a place she hears us talking about going for vacation. (we nixed yosemite in favor of a last minute travel deal to tahoe last weekend instead.)
she sits at her art table and works diligently on writing out sentences, naming the characters she has drawn, or writing her friends names on birthday cards she created.
this isn’t a post about a particular art project, but it is a post about a developmental milestone that shows up in the creations of most children at some point. right now, “sounding it out” is taking much of N’s creative energy when she sits down at her art desk, which is fun for me to watch, and also perplexing. these days when i say, “hey N, let’s make art!” she goes to her art table and writes names of the muppet’s electric mayhem group phonetically (see upper left sheet in photo below) instead of making pictures. it’s just what she’s working on.
how the art table was left last night
i wanted to include this post because i aim to authentically chronicle the “art” that is being made over at our house, and also because i hope to hear from you all on your thoughts about helping children to read and write and when and how much — so, as always, i welcome your comments and cherish your input.
) insert spare underwear, socks, pants, t-shirt, and hang bag in kindergarten classroom.
