hooked on phonics

I don't remember 'quiet time' as a child, probably because I was forced to take naps until a very old age, during which I do recall watching the numbers on my mom's not so digital digital clock flip and trying to teach myself how to tie shoes, braid hair--- anything to make the numbers flip at little faster til they read 3:00.

Nate is at the age of "quiet time" and has found that writing notes will help the on-going challenge of occupying this seemingly endless amount of time.

Last Sunday Ben and I were trying to take advantage of this time when we hear the pitter-patter of little feet up the stairs. He tip-toes into the room because he knows he's not supposed to be there and asks, "Daddy, how do you make the /ih/ sound?" Ben says with an i. This satisfies Nate and he's off. We return to relaxing when a few moments later we hear pitter-patter sounds again. "Daddy, how do you make the /wi/.../wi/.../wi/ sound?" He asks this with a extra-cute quizzical look to avoid getting into trouble. It works. Ben says with a w. Nate leaves to apparently add this new letter to the note that he's writing. He's gone for but a few minutes when we hear him again. We humor him because we're both sure that our child is one letter away of being a prodigy. This time he asks Ben how to write the /qwi/ sound. Both of us are slightly amused by this, wondering what kind of word includes the letters i, w and qui. Is he thinking about a quilt, a quill... we're stumped. Finally ben asks him which word he's trying to write.

Nate replies with a big-eyed innocent look, "I'm trying to write 'Maiwry Quwistmas'.

Hmmm... I guess instead of advanced classes, we should be thinking speech therapy.

Really, it was just plain cute.