Thursday, June 12, 2008

Marco! Polo!




I hear the children in their pool next door singing "Marco! Pollo!"

I never learned that game. I was thrust into the world of laps and times and competitive swimming early in my years. I never figured out the rules.

Tonight, my front door neighbor proudly showed off her one year old son. She is so endeared of his accomplishments. He sees my dog in the front yard and says "Daw! Daw! Daw!" He is crawling all over the sidewalk.

It made me chew the inside of my mouth. He should be saying Mamma. Dadaaa. Daog, Cat. House. Water. Eat. Pee. Poop. Hot……etc.

They are young and happy with his progress.

I chew the inside of my mouth because at his age, my children were running; not walking and forming complete sentences. I am not delusional in thinking and remembering this.

In the fourth grade, my oldest read "The Lord of the Flies" and understood it and wrote a complete narrative explaining it.

There is a fine line - One that intercedes and one that leaves things alone and allows them to become comfortable.

I think tomorrow he learns to say Mama.

But not in an interfering way.

It all starts with play.

Marco! Pollo!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Very true, Roberta. Many people don't realise that giving your children the words from the start is how they learn them.
Never mind all the fancy toys - just talk to them!!

Mozi Esme said...

With a just-turned 16-mo-old who is amazing us every day with the things she is learning, I don't even think where she compares with other kids. We were bragging to mom-in-law about how she could identify all her major, who promptly told us all kids her age do that.