Words matter.

I love that time when little kids begin to read and spell on their own. It's an awesome world to them and you find papers littering the house with phrases like "budirfli grten" (butterfly garden) and "gwocumlley" (guacamole) and still others that you have no idea what they mean because there are no spaces between the words.

This is the world I am in right now. And I love it. It brings me oodles of pleasure to see the things Adrienne tries to write. I came home from a little coffee social this evening to find a sheet of printer paper on my table with the letters "gwocumlley" written across the middle (landscape view). Matt had served them leftover enchiladas for dinner.

I was tickled that she had tried to sound it out and write it by herself. That's my big thing these days. I am trying to teach her to read (she's doing really well) but it frustrates me to no end when she gives up and whines because she is afraid of getting it wrong. All I want is for her to try. I don't care if she gets it wrong because at least I'd know she had tried her best.

She does the same thing with math. Today I made her do her minuses first. She got all but 2 right. If I let her do her pluses first she will get half the minuses wrong because she gets distracted and wants to quit. And they are a little harder. So, she does the minuses first and gets them mostly right. Then she does the pluses, which are easier, she enjoys it and they are all correct. She's such a smart girl and she is learning so fast, I hate when she gives up and doesn't try. I know she can do it even if she doesn't.

So, it makes my heart happy to see big words (which are technically in a different language) and numbers (1-60something last I saw the page) scattered around my house.