November 6, 2003 - Thursday
Over the last couple of months, Harry's preschool class has been having special days on the schedule when the children are asked to bring in an object starting with a certain letter. They've been going in order and today they were up to "E." On each of these days, I've tried to get Harry to think about what he wanted to bring and choose something himself and he's done a pretty good job. For the first such day I tried to get him thinking by asking what started with "A" then reciting lines from from the ABC book like "Aunt Annie's Alligator, A, A, A" and lines from the A Book like "Angry ants advance across apes apartment and all Arizona." When we agreed that we didn't have an alligator or an ape, Harry said, quite cleverly I thought, "I could bring the A Book. That starts with A." Indeed, it was a perfect way for the class to start the series. Harry's choices were somewhat more predictable, but still his choices. "C," for example, was a convertable, although I think he was initially going for "car."

Today, E day, Harry was immediately into it. I reminded him about E day at the breakfast and asked what he could bring that started with "E." I thought it would be a tough letter, but Harry immediately said that "elephant" started with "E."
"But, do we have an elephant you can bring?" I asked, not recalling one.
"Yeah, we do." he answered.
"Are you sure? Where is it?" I asked.
"In the big tub," he said, pointing into the living room and, I thought, at the large crib full of stuffed animals.

I still couldn't think of the elephant, but Harry seemed pretty sure, so I figured he knew. I found out later that the "tub" he was talking about was the small bin full of little plastic animals, dinosaurs, and sea creatures, but no elephant. What I suspect happened is that Harry, in looking through this pile of animals, didn't find the elephant he'd expected, but did find an eel and recognized it as a proper alternative. But, all of a sudden Harry called to me from the living room while I was still in the kitchen cleaning up from breakfast. "Hey, dad, I could bring an eel. That starts with E." Two Es, in fact. He definitely gets it.


Comments, Opinions?