Language Acquisition Marathon Happening Here
A has entered a phase of incredible language development over the past two weeks. She wants to know the names of everything and then is able to recall the words in the future on demand. She is constantly pointing to things and saying, “And this?” or “What’s that?” We look at lots of books together and A points and I give her the words or I ask her to point to something on the page. She does a great job! At this point, A is learning the Estonian words from me, and English from Daddy and a mix from K. I don’t yet see evidence that she is aware of the fact that she is surrounded by two different languages though it can’t be far off anymore. Generally, A isn’t saying too many phrases yet though she is learning “please” (palun) + whatever it is she wants. The one exception is in singing. While singing, A repeats multiple lines of songs which was a complete surprise to me when she did it all of a sudden earlier this week.
With all of this new language acquisition, K and A are able to play together in more sophisticated ways. Mostly K directs the activity, and now A has no trouble understanding how/what K wants to play. It’s fun to watch- though I am sure the discussions/arguments will get more sophisticated as well.
As for K, she is doing great in pre-school. I have also come to realize that I think she is on the cusp of learning to tell time. I didn’t even know she could read numbers though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Somehow, she will say a time, say “kell on kaheksa” (it is 8 o’clock) and will then set the arms on our toy clock to 8 o’clock. She even gets the big arm and small arm right. Why I am so shocked by this is that I haven’t particulary been practicing this with her. I need to keep in mind, kids are sponges at this age. Either way, I am going to concentrate on letters, numbers and reading a bit more with K, something I haven’t really been doing. But it appears she is ready.
This all gets me thinking that teachers sure have their work cut out for them if they have a wide range of abilities in a single classroom. Trying to keep up with the different developmental requirements of an 18 month-old and almost 3 year-old is tough enough and I can be accused of either dumbing down my interactions for all to understand or interacting way above the 18 month-old’s abilities just taking it for granted that she won’t understand. The crazy thing is that they both understand way more than I give them credit for most of the time.
