A Budding Learner



photo © 2008 takomabibelot | more info         (via: Wylio)

 My 2 year old has began to notice things on a daily basis that constantly surprise me. We were eating lunch together in the dining room with a cartoon as our background music. The music slowed it's pace, deepened, and became somber. "Mama, I think Aurthur is sad.", stated J. I was very surprised that he picked up on this small change. "Why do you think that bud?", I quickly asked. "Mama, the talk sounds sad.", he replied. Something as small as a music change signaled to his little body that the character was sad. This small recognition signaled that I needed to pay more attention to my son as a budding learner.

My eyes and ears were now open to new learning experiences for my little man. We talk more about the learning cartoons we watch and I pull things out of the stories we read. He has shown me that he's ready for more knowledge. We have begun to look at letters and numbers and give them names and sounds. Today was the perfect example of how quickly little brains soak up knowledge.

We were on our way to bring T to school when we stopped behind a HOOD milk truck. "Mama look, there are 2 O's on that truck.", J said with pride. Yes, he was correct...there were 2 O's on that truck. I wondered how many other O's he could find. I challenged his little brain to tell me whenever he saw another O. His eyes light up and were in constant action, moving from side to side as he yelled out O's on our journey. Fingers were pointed and O's were yelled from the backseat. When we got to T's school, J quickly began pointing out O's on the art displayed in the hallway.

Watching a budding reader learn is like watching the flowers bud in Spring. It is a magical experience.