After dinner tonight, Toes, Dad to Toes and I were playing with playdough. I wanted the red playdough. But, Erin said it was hers.
I said "No, it's my playdough."
She took it from me, pointed to the label and said "No, Mommy. It's mine. See? It says Erin. E - R - I - N."
Dad to Toes and I just looked at each other in amazement!
She spelled her name!!!
We've spent time showing her the letter "E" and telling her "E is for Erin." But we never dreamed she'd be able to grasp the concept enough to get all the letters of her name, so we've never even made the attempt.
So, this is yet another instance of us underestimating her capabilities.
When will she stop pointing out just how far behind we are?
Her classrooms have always had assigned seats, with each child's name printed on the back of the chair. Before this room, the name would be printed on a color or shape. Erin was the Gray Moon for the longest time. Now her chair just says "Erin."
And in one week, she learned to recognize all four letters, and put them into the correct sequence to recognize her own name.
Granted, her name was nowhere on that playdough container. But, we'll save that step for Pre-K. ;)
Then there's the fact that we gave her a basic 4-letter name. Dad to Toes said tonight "Wow, I'm really glad we didn't name her Natasha or something like that." haha
Is there a stronger word than "proud?" Because the word just doesn't seem to do justice for how we feel whenever Toes takes another one of these amazing leaps.
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Erin's TOD made contact with us today. She'll start visiting Erin's school next week and will be starting a communication notebook so we can communicate back and forth. I am so excited! I really love this teacher. I have heard wonderful things from Erin's SLP about her. Apparently her SLP has another patient that has the same TOD for his education and she couldn't say enough about how impressed she is with the level of communication this TOD makes happen between the parents, the school and the SLP. I am very eager to hear her assessment of how Erin is doing in her classroom and what suggestions she has for her preschool education.
This is exactly what we've been looking for. Someone to observe and assess how things are going. Because, it appears to us things are going just fine. We just want to make sure our assessment is correct, and to make sure her progress continues at the level appropriate to ensure that Erin succeeds to the very highest level of her abilities.
