life, love & laundry
Insights into her mind
It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Addy-Mai’s mind. I love watching her work things out in her head, I always have. To me, it’s fascinating.
Lately, she’s been trying out some new things:
- at the park, she was facing tony and he was showing her how to draw with a stick in the dirt. She wrote her name for Tony in the dirt with a stick….upside down and backward (so that it was written correctly from Tony’s vantage point)
- Today she spent some time experimenting with this concept of writing words upside down. She tried writing them left to right and right to left, tipped herself upside down to determine which was the correct way to get the right result upside-down.
- Today she picked up the chalk and very deliberately wrote her name backward – from right to left. Each letter was also flipped backward. It was totally intentionally and she was quite amused.
- Later when I asked her to write something backward so I could get a picture, she actually wrote the word from the last letter to the first, in perfect backward order.
- She often gets fixated on writing one word or drawing one picture but right now she’s fixated on a collection of pictures: soap dispensers, bathtubs and sinks. I thought it was totally random until my OCD friend pointed out that they all had to do with cleanliness. Huh. I wonder what message she’s trying to send?!
- She spends a lot of time asking us to draw pictures of completely random things (yesterday it was a egg and muffin toaster, a sweater with a hood, a piece of blue fabric….the list goes on). Then she copies them. Lately I noticed that most of the time she will copy in *exact mirror image* which totally fascinates me.
- Along with asking to draw random things, she also asks to write random words. She wants us to spell out things all the time for her. Usually really long things (like Bodacious or eraser or some totally random thing). I think it goes against all typical teaching philosophies to teach a child to read through writing at 3 years old but that is totally what is going on. She’s learning all about sounding words out, the letter orders, upper and lower case just from writing all day long. I have had 3 boys who hated writing. One still doesn’t write willingly. The other two didn’t write willingly until they were in upper elem. So seeing this little thing immerse herself in the written word is beyond bizarre to me.
- Today she covered every square inch of her chalk board with writing and pictures and then went inside her easel so she could have access to the reverse side of the chalkboard (also a chalkboard) and continue covering the surface. Usually she erases as she goes along so it was neat to see how much surface she covers with her random thoughts in a short period of time.
- She still calls erasing “shaving” and I love it so much.
I am sure it comes across as sort of braggy but it never feels like that in my heart. Really I am just in awe and fascinated. I’ve never parented a child like her and she is so fun and amazing for me to learn about.
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Wow. She is absolutely amazing. I can’t believe she is the same age as my 2 kiddos. I think you have a crazy gifted kid on your hands!
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Ithink it is amazing as well. It doesn’t sound braggy to me at all, just sort of awe struck.
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That is so cool! Lucy has no interest at all in letters or writing. That really is fascinating.
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Yeah- between her wanting to know how everything is spelled and how to write the letters (forward, backward, and upside down), and her desire to know how to say everything in Spanish as well as English- she is quite the amazing 3 year old girl.
And it is pretty damn cute when she says she’s going to “shave” off her drawings.
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August 6th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Or she’s really 5. :P
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That is so cool! By chance, when she writes in mirror, does she use her left hand? I remember being little and anytime I tried to write with my left hand, it always came out in mirror image. I am right handed. The fact that she’s learning through writing doesn’t surprise me at all. Isn’t that one of the more common learning methods? I think my guys are kinesthetic learners and I have NO idea how to teach to that!
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August 7th, 2009 at 9:34 am
No, she’s random about when she’ll draw with left vs right. I’ve tried to figure it out and there is no rhyme or reason. It is never convenient. I do think she’s drawing more and more with her right hand though.
My guys are kinesthetic learners too and when the oldest was little I was totally at a loss for how to help them learn. I suppose I must learn closer to how Addy learns but I’ve gotten used to working with kinesthetic learners and have to go back and review some stuff!
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That is really trippy. I’ve never seen a kid do that – writing all backwards and mirror and everything. But I heard Leonardo DaVinci used to do that. She has an amazing mind!
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i follow your blog and your girl definitely sounds gifted to me. So cute. Gifted children will often find ways to ‘learn’ on their own and her interest in writing and spelling and asking you to do all those things definitely show the signs. I’ve read your blog for a while now and often wondered if she was gifted and now that I”ve seen this- I think so! Enjoy her beauty and have fun- she’s going to keep you on your toes!
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Posts like this from you always fascinate me – I try to wrap my brain around Addy and I just can’t quite do it, and I mean that in the coolest of ways (cause you know I adore her, and apparently she and Delaney are cousins now so of course I adore her!). I just can’t even imagine where she gets this stuff, how she figures all of that out – like it’s almost freaky but again, in the very coolest of ways. I mean, you joke about if she’s really 5, but even then – and yeah, she’s clearly very gifted but again, even then – there is just something very remarkable happening in her brain. I think she is going to be amazing and yet an incredible challenge to teach as she gets older – though she also seems very capable of figuring out how to challenge herself. Can you imagine (and I’m sure you do, and I wonder if it sometimes terrifies you) what you’re going to be seeing in another two, five, ten years from her?
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I always knew, and I’m not just saying, that A-M is very very smart in the analytic areas (words, maths, etc).
If you don’t believe me, just show her 9month-14month picture (with just the face) to an older Vietnamese woman, she’ll tell you.
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