Over the past two weeks, Gabriel has delved into the world of "reading" and has all but mastered the alphabet. Jordan and I can barely believe it. We keep asking him to show us like we don't think it's real, surely he's forgotten! His excitement is tangible.
I would just like to note on this video that learning the alphabet was mostly HIS initiative. Learning letters started one day when someone put his name on the side of his sippy cup. He immediately was interested. After he learned numbers, I put some alphabet cards up on the wall in the kitchen and figured I might start with "A." Before I knew it, the whole thing had taken on a life of his own. Combined with a game on my iphone called Alphatots (one which he has played relentlessly while at the doctor's office, in the car on the way home while I try to keep him awake or just a few minutes here and there when I need to get something done), over a period of two weeks, Gabriel learned the entire alphabet, minus a letter here and there ("Hotdogs," instead of "H" or "Zebra" instead of "Z," "Umbrella" instead of "U"). Isn't technology AMAZING??
It wasn't more than a week and he was literally running down to the kitchen wall in the morning after just waking up to tell me that he knew three more letters. We then moved each letter he mastered to the wall in the sunroom where he would proudly rehearse them. He is delighted to show anyone who asks and now sees letters everywhere he goes, including the overhead of music at church, where he exclaims quite loudly and with all the excitement a little body can muster, "Ay!"
*I also highly recommend Tallytots which teaches kids their numbers.
And, not to be outshone, here is a video of Magdalene's first little giggles. I guess she is not nearly as much of a fan of the elephant noise. Yet.
*Just in case you are interested, the vintage-looking flashcards are called "Animal Fun" by Junzo Terada and you can get there here.
**And thank you to all of our family who, while visiting, indulged Gabriel in his quest to master the alphabet. U will always be for Umbrella and H for Hotdogs. ;)
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