Language

Mietta, at two, would have close to a thousand words in her vocabulary and speaks in sentences with correct pronouns, sentence structure and tense. Having big brothers, and wanting her say, certainly has contributed here. Not being parents that want to *push* their children to lofty parental expectations, I was intrigued after hearing of one such parent's two-year-old that knew her alphabet. I tested Mietta on her alphabet on her bedroom wall. "This is an M, Mietta. Mmmmm for Mmmietta". Mietta responds "M" "What letter is this Mietta?", "S", I was impressed. "This one?" "T", I thought perhaps I should mix it up a bit. "This one?", "A. K. D. X. Z...." I was quite astounded that Mietta knows almost the entire alphabet! She had some trouble with 'W' - naming it 'U'. I must try her on an alphabet that differs from the one in her bedroom - to see if it is not purely memory she is relying upon.

I am constantly amazed by what our children know. There is a tendency to believe that if we haven't told them, then they wont know. Nic is fascinated by words and often asks us the meaning of a word. He then tries to work it into a sentence. He asked Paul what 'addicted' meant and after an explanation was able to use it in "So Mummy is addicted to coffee.... and Luc is addicted to pens!" (for Luc's love of drawing). He asked me what 'pathetic' meant the other day. I tried to explain how it meant a kind of 'sad'. He responded with "I want to make Mietta pathetic" I then had to explain how it was a 'different' type of sad... and, really, he needn't aim to make his sister sad.