A little over a month ago, I wrote about my youngest daughter, Rose, and the very beginning of her life as a kindergarten writer (Raising A Writer Never Gets Old). Less than five weeks ago, she was the kind of writer who was just beginning to learn that she could use letters to write words. She was working hard to hear initial and ending sounds. We celebrated that work. When she wrote the word house as HS, she scrunched up her face and asked, “That’s it?” Just one full day into kindergarten, I decided to hold off on a lesson on vowels.
Saturday morning, Rose awoke from her makeshift bed of pillows next to my bed. She’s going through a “my room is scary” phase. Her face twisted into a pout as she announced, “I just wanted to write.”
Not seeing this as a problem, I suggested she write. “Go grab a notebook,” I said, still half asleep.
She came back with a sketchpad and a hot pink marker and got to work. My eyes still closed, I listened as she slowly said the word, “zipper,” writing letters as she spoke. After zipper came button and then head. Without seeing her paper, I could tell she was hearing more sounds than she had a few weeks ago. I also wondered what was going on in her head when she woke up having to write about zippers and buttons.
“Head,” Rose said again out loud. “HD? Is that it?”
I perched up on an elbow and slowly opened my eyes to see the sketchpad in my face. “Well,” I said, quickly weighing my options. “Have you learned about vowels?” A proud look of recognition spread across her face. I grabbed the marker and wrote “aeiou” across the top of her paper. “Most words have vowels. Usually in the middle of words. They’re harder to hear. Let’s say zipper again and see if we can hear a vowel.”
Sure enough, Rose was able to segment the word to hear the medial sound. We squeezed in an I in the middle of zip. Then we repeated the process for button and head.
As Rose held up her paper again, I once again marveled at all the ways she is growing as a writer. Five weeks ago, she couldn’t segment words and she didn’t know what a vowel was. Today, she’s walking around segmenting and blending words, eager to hear sounds and write them down. I’m grateful for her excitement and the way the world is opening up for her. I’m also grateful for all the wonderful things I know are happening in her kindergarten classroom.
Where There Is Joy 
You are growing yet another writer. I love how she is leading this early morning conference and the way you are thinking so carefully about how best to respond. There are important lessons for our teaching here (parenting too)!
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Amazing. I love how you can even be a teacher (or planner of your lesson) with your eyes closed.
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What astonishes me most in this post is not your amazing daughter – though she really is something! – but rather the clear ways in which you detail the growth of writing. Again and again I wish I knew about these bits & pieces of writing. I love how you can celebrate and support her growth. How lucky she is to have you when she wakes up & needs to write.
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I was thinking the same thing as Amanda. It’s amazing to me that in the haze of waking, you can come up with the perfect way to let Rose know that there is more to head than HD. You don’t say, “Yup, that’s it,” or “Weeelll, no, not exactly,” but instead, “Have you learned about vowels yet?” I didn’t know how to say those things when fully conscious. I wasn’t aware of “medial sounds.” Sigh.
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“Is that it?” Her repeated question reminds me how simple, really writing is. For young, growing writers, like Rose, it’s hearing all those sounds and realize gvtheir are letters and words to capture them. For older writers, it’s just about putting ideas on papers, without, judgement, listening, to the ideas and words swirling.
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HOW COOL is this post? I love that you were able to teach your daughter in a way that felt open, real, sincere – a way that honored the learning she had already done and set her up to make connections on her own. I smiled throughout reading your whole story.
A marvel, indeed. ❤
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