Anna has always been, shall we say, advanced for her age. At least, in terms of speech. At 20 months old, she could sing "Santa Claus is coming to Town" pretty much word for word. I remember taking a poll when she turned one that asked: "How many words does your one-year-old utter?" The responses: None. 1-5 words. 6-10 words. 10-20 words. 20 or more words. I recall thinking, "You're capping the poll at 20 words? My kid is stinkin' off the charts at 50+!" (Can you see me beaming with pride, like her level of aptitude is all my doing or something).
My little genius has kind of leveled off over the past few years. Not that she isn't smart anymore, she still demonstrates a high level of scholastic potential. But I thought the girl would be much more interested in reading than she is. In fact, I've had her enrolled in a mother's co-op preschool for the past two years that focuses mostly on teaching values, because I figured that the academics would come more naturally for her. And they have, for the most part. Still, I honestly believed that if she kept at the trajectory that she had set herself on within her first 2 years, she would be reading by the tender age of three.
Not so. But then again, I guess it depends on how you define "reading". After all, she has been reading a verse in the scriptures every night while our family studies them together. And, during "quiet time", when we are all in my room reading our respective books, she'll often peer over my shoulder and sound out a string of 3-4 letter words just to show off a bit. Maybe my idea of a 4-year old child reading bedtime stories to her younger siblings was a bit optimistic?
Anyway, today before quiet time, she insisted on reading the above book all by herself. And she did! From cover to cover! Pretty sure my bedtime story-reading days are still far from over, though.
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