number and letter making

This summer as we were walking past the cafe (yes, there is only one in the village), Leona pointed to the O on an OPEN sign and asked what it was. This was the first time she showed interest in letters or numbers. I said "It's a letter, O, Owen's O." She then pointed to the P, and I said it was auntie Pippin's P. Her pee? She has to go pee? She doesn't need to go poop? Ah, what a glorious rookie mistake on my part.

[here asking about the 'n']

And that was pretty much that. She was content with my ensuing simple explanation about letters. Since then she would sometimes ask what we were writing and then ask us to write her name, Eliana's, ours, etc., just like she would sometimes ask us to draw specific things or people when we were drawing together, but it was more of a 'look at it and ask for the next person('s name)' type of thing rather than 'I want to learn letters'.

Then, as mentioned in our current faves post, Leona started to get a lot more interested in numbers and letters after finding the typewriter in the hidden cott in the little bedroom upstairs.

She will point to 1 and say it is Eliana's (since Eliana is 1 years old), 3 is hers, will ask where my letter is (J) and Judge's (T - for Tobias), etc.

Last week she also started to recognize 1 and 3 on signs and licence plates, and has learned to recognize zero, 2 and 4 as well.

But she has not been interested in trying to write anything. Yesterday I offered her to trace an L I had written, which she declined. Though I am still very 'Leona led' I feel it is important to offer her opportunities for new experiences~

However, this doesn't mean she is not into creating numbers and letters right now. While playing with play dough she made a 1 and a zero and asked me to make a 3 (she felt the 3 was too difficult).

And today, she showed me this:

And said "it's my other one"...I was confused. She said "Not 3, my other one".  Her first L - her first letter - ever.

This is so exciting!




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