Numbers (and letters) guy

During the kids' first semester of preschool, Isaac's occupational therapist worked with him on tracing and imitating various shapes and lines. We saw his fine motor skills improve dramatically, and he's putting those "pre-writing" skills to good use with lots of, well, actual writing!

Yesterday, for example, he brought me his magnadoodle and drew the number 10. He has done this before, so I was getting ready to walk away when he drew an 11 next to it. Okay, easy enough. Then he shocked me by writing a 12, a 13, a 14 ... all the way up to 19! I knew he was doing very well with counting, but I had no idea that he could write every single numeral from 0 to 9!

Isaac writes his numbers on the magnadoodle

I also didn't know that Isaac could write "balloon." I have never instructed him in how to write any letter of the alphabet, yet he is slowly figuring out how to write more and more of them himself. He proudly showed me his new word several times yesterday, and I was lucky enough to catch his excitement on video:



Of course, right now Isaac can still spell much more than he can write, and he shows us his stuff by using his beloved magnetic letters. For example, a couple of Sundays ago he spelled out "god sun" and said, "Mommy, God made the sun!" Turns out that's what the kids learned in Sunday school that morning:

Isaac ponders his Sunday school lesson

We are so proud of Isaac for teaching himself to count, to read, to spell, and to write. Since he is still learning to talk, however, I have started trying to use his abilities to his advantage by writing relevant sentences for him to read (such as "I love you" or "Chase me" or "Can I have that?"). I've noticed that doing so is really helping with his understanding, articulation, and self-expression. We are excited to see how else we can help our boy learn to communicate by using his love of the written word!

Easy writer

Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a writer! In the past few days I've noticed Isaac making different combinations of lines and circles on the magnadoodle, and today I caught him writing an actual word:

d-o-g

He was so proud of himself, writing it over and over to show his abuelitos and his daddy. Here is our little scribe in action:



This boy never ceases to amaze us with the things he manages to teach himself. And his erudite Abuelito Nehiel has even bigger dreams for his namesake: This week my dad started teaching Isaac the Greek alphabet!

Spelling boy

Well, Mr. Alphabet has struck again: No longer content to just read, Isaac surprised us this evening by starting to spell! I was busy getting the other kids ready for bed when I came around the corner and saw him arranging letters next to a picture book. See what he did here?

So proud of himself!

I have a feeling that the days of spelling things so that the c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n don't u-n-d-e-r-s-t-a-n-d are numbered!