School

With both girls in school, there has been a LOT of talk at home about the various things they are learning.  Madeleine is even learning a lot of Julia's kindergarten lessons through osmosis.  The other night, after bedtime story and lullaby, Madeleine proceeded to rattle off various letters and tell me their letter sounds, something Julia has been working on in kindergarten.  While both girls have known the basics of letter sounds for quite some time, Julia is now learning the correct phonetic way to produce these sounds (for instance, "llllll" instead of "luh" for the letter l, and "mmmmm" instead of "muh" for m.)  Madeleine is now a pro at these phonics herself, thanks to big sister's frequent afternoons of pretend-play school.

Julia has also been mastering her lower-case letter identification.  Starting kindergarten, she had been clear on all lower case letters except for q, which she identified as a g, and l, which she labelled as an I.  Confusion no longer, however.  She is now - alliteration intended - the queen of q, to the point where she is actually overextending and seeing the letter q where it doesn't actually exist.  For example:

JULIA: (pointing out the car window at the big, lit-up gas station sign) Three...three lower-case q lower-case q?!?
ME: Oh, honey, that says 3.99. 

In addition to letter sounds, Julia is doing a lot of sight-reading, and her interest in spelling words has extended to Madeleine as well.  Madeleine and I now frequently have these kinds of exchanges:

MADELEINE: Oh, Mommy, I see a CAR!  Mommy?  How do you spell car?
ME: C-A-R.
MADELEINE: (brightly) Oh yeah!  C-A-R!!

Last night, as I was putting Madeleine to bed, we had a long, meandering talk that led to the discussion of spelling.

ME: Okay, Madeleine, good night, sweetheart.  I love you.
MADELEINE: I love you too, JUCHIE.  Mommy, you're Juchie, and Daddy is Juchie.
ME: Do you know who you used to call Juchie?
MADELEINE: Uh, you and Daddy.
ME: No, Juchie is actually what you used to call Julia.  When you were little.  You couldn't say "Julia" yet because you were too little, so you called her Juchie.
MADELEINE: But NOW I can say Julia!  Because I know that's it's J for Julia!  Yeah!  Juchie is J!  It's J for Julia.  Because Julia is J...J...Mommy?  How do you spell peanut butter sandwich?
ME: P-E-A-N-U-T B-U-T-T-E-R S-A-N-D-W-I-C-H.
MADELEINE: Oh yeah!  P...P...P...Mommy?  Why is it TWO Ps?

On the subject of letters, Julia is also starting to notice initials and abbreviations, and she frequently asks what things like "CVS" stand for.  At other points, she comes to her own conclusions about what certain letters represent.  For instance, as she and Madeleine poured through both their Halloween and their Spooky Walk candy this morning, Julia pulled the Spooky Walk coupon for a haircut at Great Clips out of her bag.  For some inexplicable reason, the coupon was marked on the backside with the following letters:

JULIA: D-S.  Dr. Seuss?!?  Mommy, why does it say Dr. Seuss on it?
ME: Uh...I don't know.
JULIA: (thoughtful) Maybe it was HIS idea to do the Spooky Walk?

That must be it.

And back to the topic of school: Madeleine has her Teddy Bear class potluck supper this evening.  I can't help getting a bit sentimental about this, as it was the day of Julia's Teddy Bear potluck supper that Madeleine was born.  Madeleine doesn't seem to get any of the sentiment, however, and just seems confused about both the prospect of the potluck supper as well as the actual name of the event.

ME: Here, Madeleine, let's put your pretty dress on.
MADELEINE: But...Mommy?  Why did you get me a pretty dress to put on?
ME: Well, I thought you might like to wear this dress to your potluck supper tonight.
MADELEINE: But Mommy? Why do I have a tea-top supper tonight?
ME: You mean a potluck supper?
MADELEINE: (laughing) Oh, yes!  A topluck supper!  Not a TEA-TOP supper.
ME: Yes, a potluck supper.
MADELEINE: But Mommy?  Why do I have a popluck supper tonight?

At least she's getting incrementally closer to the proper word with each subsequent attempt.  I will be sure to report any amusing anecdotes from tonight's popluck supper in tomorrow's blog...