Thank You For My Unicorn

I wanted to write a quick note to talk about yesterday's posting of Natalie reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I guess I'm writing in part to explain something about the video, and in part to brag on her.

When I first saw that video, back in 2002, I assumed that Natalie was NOT reading the book at all. I figured she'd just memorized the video, which she'd seen dozens of times before, and she'd just memorized the book, which Lisa and I (and Nat's older sister Meredith) had read to her many times before. There was no way, I told myself, that she was actually reading the book. Three year olds (almost four year olds) can't read.

That notion was dispelled the next month, when Natalie turned four. She had a birthday party, and one of her friends, a girl named Audrey, gave her a stuffed unicorn. A couple of days after her birthday Natalie walked into my bedroom and handed me a piece of paper.

"Here you go, Dad," she said to me. "This is a Thank You note for my birthday."

I looked at the piece of paper. She had scribbled some letters on it. At first glance, I assumed she'd scribbled them randomly:

"That's nice," I said, playing along. "What does the note say?"

Natalie pointed at the letters and said, "Thank you for my unicorn, Audrey. From Natalie, Dad, and Mom!"

As she pointed at the letters, my jaw dropped. As she dragged her fingers across the paper while reading her note again, I could see that was EXACTLY what was written on the paper: Thank (TAC) you (U) for (FER) my (Y) unicorn (YNACORYN), Audrey (ADEDER).

What amazed me about this was that we had NEVER made a systematic effort to teach Natalie to read early. Sure, we read to her several times a day EVERY day, and she did watch Sesame Street on TV and we did have a couple of computer software games designed to teach beginning sounds, and Meredith, who was in school, liked to "play" school and pretend to be the teacher to Natalie's student, but we'd never sat Natalie down and said, "Okay, here's how you read." She'd just figured it out on her own.

I guess I should have seen the signs that she was reading on her own. There was the video I posted yesterday, and for about six months before that, Natalie would correct me when I was reading to her. I might read "Then Alice fell in the deep hole and disappeared" and Natalie would correct me and say, "No, Dad. She 'fell INTO the deep hole.'" I'd look at the page, and sure enough she was right. But I just assumed that Natalie had heard the story so many times that she had it memorized, even though she'd be pointing right to the word that I'd mispronounced.

I'm not saying that everything in yesterday's video is Natalie actually reading the book. I think, for the most part, she IS reciting something she'd memorized. But when she loses her place in the book on several occasions I watch her now, and I firmly believe that she's actually reading the words and not just looking at the pictures to find her place again.