Fregot ? Or FORgot ?

“You fregot ? Or you FORgot ?”

“Patren ? Or PatTERN ?”

“You ‘nember ? Or you REmember ?”

“We readed ? Or we read ?”i

“It freezed ? Or it froze ?”

“You drawed ? Or drew ?

And many more such re-articulated statements… It seems a useful technique to improve pronunciation and grammar, at least with the 4′ tall, 48 lbs, 4 1/4-year-old Niko. If you did this to an adult, as my father tends to do with me to this day in his lawyer-y interrogator-y way, it tends to derail one’s train of thought, but it doesn’t in the slightest with the little blondie. Good.

In other progress, Niko’s published his first family portraits this week and liberally taped them all over the house, adding his personal touch to the growing art gallery that is our little mid-century family home in the process.ii Yes, we all look like Jack Skellington, but art is about meaning, not “the object in and of itself.” That’s why every day is art, because everything is art! It’s incredibly heart-warming to come home to these portraits. I mean, look how thin and happy we are!

Sweet, sweet times are these.
___ ___ ___

  1. He’s also learning to read right now, a skill that we’re developing by my picking words on a page, telling him the first letter or two or three, and then him finding them, with a huge tickle as a reward when he’s correct. He demonstrates incredible patience in finding new words, mostly nouns in Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham, spending whole minutes quite unflustered. Niko’s still not the most methodological of searchers but at least he’s persistent. Besides, “randomness” in the adventuring sense is deeply underrated.

    There’s no particular pedagogical theory behind my “name-and-find-and-tickle” approach to learning to read, at least not an explicit one that I read somewhere and am testing out first-hand, it’s more the result of instinct and natural trial-and-error. No doubt it will continue to evolve as his skills do but it seems to be an effective entry point. He wants to read all the time now! What could be a better sign of success than that ?

  2. Niko's first family portrait - November 2019

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