She's One Smartie!!

Mikayla's first sentence - look carefully in the lower right hand corner!!

In an earlier post (Mikayla's favorite things) I told about how Mikayla loves to read and write and she always has either a book in her hand or a writing tablet and writing utensil. I wasn't kidding! This morning my four year old wrote her first sentence! I couldn't believe it - you should have heard me squealing with delight. I wish I had gotten a picture of Mikayla's face lighting up when she first realized why mom was so excited. I didn't think of the camera until later when I thought I've got to show everyone this. So Nana, GGma, GGpa, Susie, and Juanita we hope you get a chance to read it.

Some of you may be asking "how in the world is that a sentence??" If you look closely it says "I love my mom" - honestly it does!! Mikayla was sitting on the couch writing this morning and I said "why don't you try writing a sentence, something like I love my mom" and she wrote that all by herself!!! She has the "I" for I, the "L" for love, the "m" for my, and another "m" for mom! Then I showed her how to put a period at the end. I teach both of my children just as I teach the children in my classroom to first write words the way they sound (phonetically, or some people call this invented spelling). Last weekend, Mikayla was pretending to take my order and when I said I wanted french fries, she asked me how to spell that. I told her to spell it the way it sounds and write the letters that she hears.

She has been able to identify some letters since she was two, learning all of them and the sounds when she was 3, and she's been reading Dick and Jane for the past 6 months so I knew this was something she could manage even though she's four. Never would I have guessed that just a week later, she would be writing sentences!! After she wrote this sentence, she went on to write "ILMD" (I love my dad), and "ILDrew" (I love Drew) all with periods at the end and all COMPLETELY by herself!

That paper is now dated and proudly displayed on our refrigerator.

This is one of those things that mommy will keep forever!