For a very long time, Sebastien was not at all interested in writing or drawing, or even coloring. He preferred to use crayons and markers as various characters that would dance around or act out stories, rather than using them as tools for writing.
Around Valentine's Day, we had to sign about 15 Valentine's cards. At first, Bash did his usual ask for help - I would sort of guide his hand while he wrote letters. But then I encouraged him to try it without me and before too long, he was writing "Bash" on his own.
It often looked something like this:
Rather suddenly, Sebastien began to spend a lot of time writing his letters. This next picture was taken around the end of February, and this was one of the first times that he wrote all of the letters in the alphabet on his own.
He often wants me to write something like "bear" or "love" or "Aunt Corrie" on a different piece of paper so that he can copy what I've done. He asks me how to spell things, and he will write down what I've said.
Yesterday, I walked up behind him. He had been writing and drawing while I was doing dishes, and this is what I saw:
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Within about six weeks, he went from not wanting to write letters at all, to writing words on his own like "bat" and "sat" and "cat." And I have caught him writing "Violet" "Eden" and his full name "Sebastien." Lately he is trying lower case letters and has begun drawing things like faces and he coloring in the lines, rather than scribbling. This has all happened so fast!
And it has all happened right around the time that he has learned to read. Using sight words, matching beginning sounds with pictures, and actually sounding words out, he can read quite a bit, considering he is only 3 1/2!
I put a video on Facebook a couple weeks ago, illustrating Bash's reading skills. For example, he sees an animal and the starting letter "J" and figures out jaguar. But then "A Panda can eat up to 88 pounds of bamboo a day" is a good example of him being able to just straight up read. (I tried to post the video again here with no luck.)
Am I claiming that he can read anything? No! Sometimes I second guess this whole reading thing and think he is just good at memorizing and putting two and two together. (Like Dr. Seuss books that he has heard a lot, he will sit down and read on his own. That definitely is memorizing. Though, while reciting, he points to each word while he says it.)
But sometimes he demonstrates things in an unquestionable way. For example, over the weekend we spent some time at Adam's grandma's house. Bash picked up books he had never seen before, and he could read a good portion of them.
We are very proud of Sebastien and have loved watching these skills unfold before our eyes!
We are very proud of Sebastien and have loved watching these skills unfold before our eyes!
Not to be totally left out, here is a picture that Eden drew in January. A budding artist, I think. :)
And don't even get me started on Violet, who draws a circle and then and says "eyes, nose, mouth" while she draws dots and a line in the circle...she's 18 months old!
