Getting Talkative

Nathan finished his first week of preschool this week. And he loved it!! Day 2, he was all too eager to wave goodbye to me at his classroom door as if to say, "Bye mom! I'll be fine, you can leave now." Umm... ok... I still stood there to make sure he put his snack (yogurt) in the fridge and got settled ok.

By Friday, he was waving goodbye to me at the START of the hallway. AND saying, excitedly "Bye!" then he took off down the hall to his teacher. I guess it's good, means he's loving school. And at least he still runs to hug me when he sees me at pick-up :)

School has been better for him than I could have imagined. I really struggled with the idea of letting him go - he can't tell me what he learned (for good or bad) and he'd be mixed in with 4 & 5 year olds that talk and probably know more than they should... But so far, it's been great!

School has stimulated Nathan's speech faster than I dreamed it would. I assumed that it would be like church - he spends 3-8 hours a week in nursery at church. How could a school setting be any different as far as peer stimulation?? But, whoa it has been different! When I think about it, it makes sense... At church there's a Bible story and a craft, but it's mostly play time and there's little-to-no need for Nathan to talk to the teacher or to his friends. The Sunday School teacher only needs to know when Nathan wants/needs something - theres no purposeful conversations at age 3. They can just play.

But at school, kids are encouraged to talk to eachother and talk to the teacher. Especially since most of the kids in his class are there for speech delays (and a few have larger issues to overcome, too). So school mixes the special need preschoolers with teh 4 & 5 year old preschoolers that can talk. They rotate thru stations together and are encouraged to express themselves verbally - as well as in many other ways. Whatever they're doing.... it's working!!

In just 5 days, Nathan learned 4 new words. That may not sound like much, but we're usually lucky if he learns to say 4-5 words in a month!  What new words is he saying?? "Eggs", "socks" (although sometimes it doesn't quite come out right... and he sounds like a USC fan, which his Clemson alumni father will never allow... lol). He's also saying "cool" and doing well at attempting "school."

"Cool" kind of threw me off guard the other day. I don't even remember what he said it in reference to - but I heard the word come out and had to acknowledge it. Yay for new words! And, although its not a word we never say in the house, I don't think it's a regular word in our vocab. So he probably picked it up from school.

Nathan's not the only one who's had a burst of verbal growth this week. Faith has, too. She's always been a quitck learner for words. But it seems this week she's attempting every word you say, and not just 4-5 new words a day. And boy does that little girl love to talk!!! She keeps us smiling :)

She counted to 10 again on Saturday. But by the time I got the camera out, she was done showing off. One day soon I'll get it.

I've been trying to teach her the ABCs, but right now she still thinks every letter is an "R." Although she'll mimic me when I say the letter. But if she sees a letter magnet or puzzle peice on the floor, she calls it an "R" - maybe we should have named her something that started with an R ;)

I'm looking forward to the kids seeing both sets of grandparents in the coming weeks - you all will be tickled with how much the kids are talking, how much change there's been in just 3 months. And hopefully they'll finally get out some "Gramma, Grampa & Granny" sounds. But they both already have "Pa" down!  Hopefully they'll still have the word mastered when they SEE Pa though ;-)

Tomorrow is a new school day, and it's great to know Nathan's not only loving it, but is being well stimulated by the peer interaction, too. And Faith is loving Mommy time - though she still plays by herself a lot (I don't want her getting too spoiled, it'll just make the end of the year harder when baby comes). She's loving the idea of playing without Nathan there to take toys away, and the mornigns that we go shopping just one-one-one together, too. So school is a win-win for everyone so far. That's a big answer to prayer!