Dear Marshall,
You weren’t much of a talker until you started school. Now you’re in your second year of pre-K, and boy, do you talk! You tell us stories and make jokes. And ask questions—lots and lots of questions!
Many of your questions are difficult to answer. For example, we went on a tractor ride at the local farm. We pointed out the corn plants as we passed them. You asked, “How does a corn plant work?” Oy! Where do you even start with the answer? Pollination? Seeds? Photosynthesis? And while we can (amazingly!) often explain things in general terms that seem to satisfy your curiosity, there’s a lot we don’t understand ourselves. I often wish I could give you better answers.
You have beautiful manners now. For the longest time, no matter how many times we explained that asking nicely meant remaining calm and using the word “please,” you would just repeat the phrase “ask nicely.” But finally you have learned how to say please! You say “sorry” with great sincerity. And you don’t just say “thank you.” You elaborate, saying things like “Thank you for washing that, Mommy” or “Thank you for the milk.” And because we praise you often, you praise us right back, saying things like “Good job making the sandwich, Mommy!”
You are fascinated by the idea of time. You use phrases like “all the time,” “all day long,” “for ever and ever,” and “a hundred years.”
When you don’t want to do something (e.g., trying a new food), you say things like “maybe tomorrow” or “maybe when I grow up.”
The only words I’ve noticed that you still have special pronunciations for are “calendern” (calendar) and “ginding” (beginning). Until recently, you were using these:
tar = guitar
grasspoppers = grasshoppers
samwich = sandwich
teefis = teeth
thomas = hummus
You’ve come a long way this year. You know most of the alphabet and can sing the whole alphabet song. You can spell and write your first name, and you recognize certain short words (e.g., “hot”) when you read them. You constantly surprise us with your vocabulary, using words like “crescent” and “octagon.” Wow!
We are so proud of you and can’t wait to see how you grow in 2014!
Love,
Mom