Friday, May 22, 2009

Letters, Letters, Everywhere

Huston has been able to recognize and say the letter "H" for a very long time now. I hadn't given much thought to trying to teach him any more letters, though, until about a month ago when he was playing in his closet and pointed to the "H" in the word "Huggies" on a package of diapers. We hadn't talked about letters or done anything with letters in forever, so I was super excited that he was spotting the letter "H" just out of the blue. I decided maybe it was time to get back out his magnet letters for the fridge (which had previously been banished to a drawer because he always knocked them all over the floor and refused to pick them up). Over the next few days, Huston proceeded to amaze both me and Clarke with how quickly he was learning and naming new letters. He now knows and can say "A, D, E, F, H, I, M, N, O, S, and T." He knows several others, but can't say them yet. The "R," for example, comes out as "eeeeeeehhhh."

The cutest thing, though, is how he spots letters all over the place and says them. He finds them on Clarke's t-shirts, on Banana Republic shopping bags, on Kohl's shopping carts, on signs, and packages, and anywhere you can think of. It's just adorable.

Wednesday of this week he had another major letter breakthrough, which Clarke and I were unfortunately unable to witness in person because his parents were babysitting. They had Huston outside with some chalk and he made some markings on the ground, walked away, then came back and pointed to it and said "H." Here is a picture of his first written letter:
And a close up:
We're so proud of you, Huston. Our little letter genius.