Sunday, March 05, 2006

RIF

The Monkey loves phonics.

(Note to parents and would-be parents: I highly recommend the LeapFrog "Letter Factory" DVD for developing this skill in the moderately TV-addicted child...he watched it a couple of times and will now obsessively tell you what sound every letter makes and can play endless letter-sound games with the grandparents over the phone. Everyone wins.)

This morning as I was emptying the dishwasher, he came barrelling into the kitchen with one of the six purple Veggie Tales DVDs we have -- all of them look identical except for the name of the program on the bottom, so it's a little roulette-ish for what you're going to get unless, of course, you happen to read.

Monkey: Mommy, which one is this one? It has the E...

Me: Hrm...let's think...what sound does the E make?

Monkey: Ehhhh...

Me: Good! Which one of your Veggie Tales starts with "Ehhh"?

Monkey: I dunno.

Me: Ok...let's read some other letters on there...

Monkey: E....S....what's this letter?

Me: That's a small T

Monkey: Oh. E....S....T....what's this letter?

Me: That's a small H.

Monkey: Oh. E...S...T...H...(struggled pause)...G...

Me: No, that's a small E.

Monkey: Could you just read it to me?

Me: Ok...let's sit down and sound it out.

Monkey: (crawls into my lap)

Me: (finger following letters) Ehhhhhssssterrrrrr Thhhuhh G-g-girrrrrl Whhoooooo B-b-b-eeeeecaaaaaaame Qwuh-Qwuh-Qwuh-eeeeeeennnnn -- Now do you know what it is?

Monkey: (matter of factly) Yeah. Estherthegirlwhobecamequeen. (halfway across the room) I wasn't looking for that one.

Me: Oh.


I imagined him doing a Napoleon Dynamite eye-roll as he ran back into the living room...like "Gosh! If she'd just told me that to begin with..."

4 comments:

towwas said...

Ha! And you're all, Monkey! Landmark moment! And he's all, whatever mom, just tell me if it's the one with the dentist.

MonkeyMom said...

Yeah, the moment the light bulb goes on and he figures out that by smooshing letter sounds together, words appear, it's all over.

And on that note, have you actually read the Dick and Jane stories since 1st grade? No? Here...do this... Read this out loud five times and try to make it sound moderately interesting...

Look Dick!
Look Jane!
See Baby?
Oh, oh, oh!
Funny Baby.

*blink*

The Monkey is obsessed with the Dick and Jane stories and they sooooo suck to read aloud to him. I'll be glad when he can "oh oh oh" by him self-self-self for these stories. Then I can move on to reading really cool stuff to him...like Harry Potter!

towwas said...

Oh gosh, and he likes it? I'm beginning to doubt the Monkey's judgment.

How weird is it that judgment is spelled judgment and not judgement? Well, the dictionary says it can be spelled judgement, but judgment is preferred.

Anyway. Past my bedtime.

MonkeyMom said...

Ok, I'm so glad you said that...I always want to put that extraneous 'e in judgment... A lawyer-friend of mine corrected me on it...I would have been spelling it wrong indefinitely otherwise... :)