"B!"

Jude seems to have this uncanny ability to over-generalize his vocabulary - fitting very obtuse categories into simple words that some how work in communicating to us. There are plenty of people we know who tell us constantly how 'smart!' he is! How well behaved he is! How well adjusted he is!

While all of this to us as parents seems to be so entirely true, the fact is that from time to time I get mildly concerned at his lack of vocabulary. I can prattle off instructions to him and he can follow them like a pro. He can point and make noises and use the fall-back words and hand motions like a champ to get his point across, but to get him to elaborate and say more takes a bit of effort. It just seems to me that he's entirely content with everything that's round being a 'ball', everything that's wet being 'juice', all of his friends being 'kyree' and anything with sharp teeth being a 'ROAR!'. I wasn't - and still am not frustrated or entirely concerned, but I keep wondering when sentences other than "I want that" will flow out of his mouth.

Then he discovered his letters.

A couple months ago I started to introduce him to letters. I'd always drawn words and labeled pictures when we colored or played with sidewalk chalk, but it's like one day it just grabbed him. When he started showing interest, I went with it. We started focusing on one letter at a time for a couple of days at a time until he seemed to be familiar with it and then we added another... and another... and another...about half way through the alphabet all hell broke loose and he seemed to be recognizing that the world around him had more letters than he'd ever noticed before! There were signs on buildings! Suddenly the ink in books were more than just shapes! The magnets on the fridge had meaning! He was hooked!

When we scribble with sidewalk chalk he asks me to draw letters. He makes shapes when he draws, that as a mother, I see as his attempt to ACTUALLY write letters - especially since he will tell me which letter he thinks he drew. He has on many occasions made VERY clear "A's" and "C's". When he see the letter "J" he says "me!" because he knows his name starts with a J. "M" is simply "mommy". "D" is simply "daddy". "S" is "ssss" like a snake. With all the practice with the letters I have him saying more and more. As we go through the alphabet we talk about words that begin with each letter and I have him repeat them. Often times he does - other times he doesn't, but it's like we're making progress (if only that progress would flow out of his little lessons and into his daily language...).

Every letter I draw he likes to come back at and draw over it. He likes to trace my letters - sometimes with precision... other times not so much. So, I bought some supplies. It's not something I would have thrown at him if he wasn't showing interest, but he was, so I'm capitalizing on it. I bought some sentence strips. I taped them to his easel and I drew a few letters - one letter for each strip. After drawing A-E in bold ink, I made a series of dotted letters following for Jude to trace - leaving space for me to add more - or for Jude to attempt it on his own.

Being thrilled that his easel had paper and fresh crayons again, he was eager to join me. He watched me fill out the letters. He watched me tape them to the easel and I showed him how to trace the letters like he does with the chalk. Having me help him, he seemed unsure and held his crayons less confidently than he typically does. But together we traced the letter "E" and then we traced the letter "D". He beamed with pride and I encouraged him to try again. He grabbed the crayon with more confidence than the first time and went at the series of "E's" on his own.

The first dotted E we did together... the last dotted E we did together - the lines through the middle are where he tried on his own.

I was slightly disappointed when the product was anything BUT tracing the letters, but told him how proud I was of him and told him to keep trying, showing him to take his time and go over each letter. Then, it was like a magic little light switch went off in his head and he tried again. This time seemingly more confident than the last, he went after the series of D's.

He did an awesome job! As you can see above, his D's were more like "O's" (the first dotted D is the one we did together) and as he got more excited towards the end his excitement got the best of him and he hardly finished each letter, but he did so well!




A little while later I made my way back into the toy room to find that after I had left he had tried his hand at the C's - doing a not to shabby job on one of them. Clearly I was beaming with pride. At just over 2, he's already beginning to master his letters (something some kids don't even know anything about until at least preschool) and tracing them. He's associating certain letters with certain people/objects and recognizing the letters in the world around him.

... but then again, when he wants to talk about his letters, he doesn't call them letters, he calls them "B!". When he wants a cup of milk or water, when he sees rain falling from the sky or he wants to go swimming, he still calls it "juice". We may be making progress, but clearly we still have a ways to go!

As someone who is associated with a number of other moms with kids Jude's age, I think it's amazing to see areas where some kids soar and others might lag behind. I think it's humbling to see that each child is talented in their own way. I think it's a lesson in positive thinking to not focus on how your child might not excel at one thing, but could kick butt at something else. It's reassuring to know that no kid is amazing at everything - that each child is unique, that my child? He kicks ass as drawing letters.