letters, reading and WarGames
elizabeth roberts
This is cross-posted from my blog... This morning I finished putting the magnets on the letter tiles, and I gave them to Megan. She started sticking them on the board, and I started putting her name together for her. Logan jumped off the computer to come "write" his name with the magnets. Gracie just stuck a bunch up on the board quietly. We read Logan, Megan and Gracie's names, then Logan said "I can spell cat!" So he put up a c, then became stuck on the "a." We talked about the letters matching the sounds we hear (Yes, I realize that the short a sound doesn't match the letter's name) and Logan said "Oh yeah the little a!" So he picked up one, and then said "Cat. Kuh...Ahh...Tuh. Tuh, tuh....tuh....t!" and he picked up a "t" tile.
:-) Yep, I'd say he knows how to spell "cat!" Then I asked him what if I took away the C and put an "r"? and he said "arrrrrr-at" LOL! Yeah, it does look as if it would sound like that! So I reminded him how else an "r" can sound, and he said "Oh yeah! RAT!" (with the ehrrr sound) Then he picked up an "m" and said "And this is 'Mat!'" I said it was, and I said, so what about an "s" what word would that make? He thought about it a little before saying "sat!"
Then he decided he'd had enough, but has been sitting at the computer playing Knight while saying "Cat, rat, mat, sat...mat sat on a cat..the cat sat on a rat..." in a sing-songy sort of voice (although he's since stopped and is singing that "aki-tiki-baba" thing from "Lilo and Stitch."
I took a picture of Gracie sitting at the board. Megan had wandered off, and Logan was on the computer. I sat with Gracie while she put letters up, asking me "What? What?" with nearly each one. She'd then say it back to me "Big K!" or "Little u!" (although she said "ooo" actually). If she knew it, she'd tell me "Big O! Big O!" or "little e! little e!" (she also recognizes both C's, and mixes up little b and d, but understands that there is a little "b" and a little "d") :-) I thought that was just so cute, her enthusiasm and interest in knowing "What? What?" then repeating it after me.
Someone on one of the email lists mentioned a book by Ed Hirsch - something about Cultural Literacy. I think I might look for a copy. Last night Sarah and I watched War Games - the 1980s Matthew Broderick flick. I hadn't seen it in years, and it was very interesting to see just how far things have come. I had to stop the movie and explain a little more than I thought I would have to, and I realized that times certainly have changed. Not just technology but our entire culture. Where it was easy for me to understand the movie War Games without questions, that was the culture I'd grown up in. I didn't have to ask who the Russians were, or why we were worried about them starting a war with us.
But it just made me aware of how things have changed since I was a kid. Sarah wants me to spend some time today with her explaining more about Russia, communism, and the breakup of the Soviet Union. This should be very interesting for both of us! I'm not even quite certain just where to start with explaining all of that to Sarah, but I look forward to sharing with her my memories from when the Berlin Wall came down and everything. I'd had a poem published in my school's literary magazine - I just remembered that. I'll have to look and see if I still have a copy of it!! I betcha she'd get a kick out of that issue, many of us wrote about the way the world was changing for us then. I think I was a freshman in high school. Nope. 8th grade - it was 1989 wasn't it?
Beth
http://serendipityacademy.blogspot.com
Sing, Dance, Laugh...LOVE!
---------------------------------
Brings words and photos together (easily) with
PhotoMail - it's free and works with Yahoo! Mail.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
:-) Yep, I'd say he knows how to spell "cat!" Then I asked him what if I took away the C and put an "r"? and he said "arrrrrr-at" LOL! Yeah, it does look as if it would sound like that! So I reminded him how else an "r" can sound, and he said "Oh yeah! RAT!" (with the ehrrr sound) Then he picked up an "m" and said "And this is 'Mat!'" I said it was, and I said, so what about an "s" what word would that make? He thought about it a little before saying "sat!"
Then he decided he'd had enough, but has been sitting at the computer playing Knight while saying "Cat, rat, mat, sat...mat sat on a cat..the cat sat on a rat..." in a sing-songy sort of voice (although he's since stopped and is singing that "aki-tiki-baba" thing from "Lilo and Stitch."
I took a picture of Gracie sitting at the board. Megan had wandered off, and Logan was on the computer. I sat with Gracie while she put letters up, asking me "What? What?" with nearly each one. She'd then say it back to me "Big K!" or "Little u!" (although she said "ooo" actually). If she knew it, she'd tell me "Big O! Big O!" or "little e! little e!" (she also recognizes both C's, and mixes up little b and d, but understands that there is a little "b" and a little "d") :-) I thought that was just so cute, her enthusiasm and interest in knowing "What? What?" then repeating it after me.
Someone on one of the email lists mentioned a book by Ed Hirsch - something about Cultural Literacy. I think I might look for a copy. Last night Sarah and I watched War Games - the 1980s Matthew Broderick flick. I hadn't seen it in years, and it was very interesting to see just how far things have come. I had to stop the movie and explain a little more than I thought I would have to, and I realized that times certainly have changed. Not just technology but our entire culture. Where it was easy for me to understand the movie War Games without questions, that was the culture I'd grown up in. I didn't have to ask who the Russians were, or why we were worried about them starting a war with us.
But it just made me aware of how things have changed since I was a kid. Sarah wants me to spend some time today with her explaining more about Russia, communism, and the breakup of the Soviet Union. This should be very interesting for both of us! I'm not even quite certain just where to start with explaining all of that to Sarah, but I look forward to sharing with her my memories from when the Berlin Wall came down and everything. I'd had a poem published in my school's literary magazine - I just remembered that. I'll have to look and see if I still have a copy of it!! I betcha she'd get a kick out of that issue, many of us wrote about the way the world was changing for us then. I think I was a freshman in high school. Nope. 8th grade - it was 1989 wasn't it?
Beth
http://serendipityacademy.blogspot.com
Sing, Dance, Laugh...LOVE!
---------------------------------
Brings words and photos together (easily) with
PhotoMail - it's free and works with Yahoo! Mail.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]