she keeps on writing

after greta wrote "greta", she wrote mama (the bottom photo), otto and papa (the top photo, otto on top and then papa below it). she sounded out mama and papa on her own, so she actually wrote "M O M O" and "P O P O", since the sounds she hears in those words are the short 'o' sound (like in hot or dog).

way to go greta! this was really hard work for her, and she worked so hard and was so proud. it takes a TON of strength and control to be able to manipulate a pencil to write letters.

greta writes greta

tonight while i was cleaning up after dinner, greta was at her easel. she asked if i could help her write an "r". she said she was writing her name and had already written the g. i showed her how to write an r, and then she wrote it next to the g she had already written. then she said, "i know what comes next and i know how to write it" and she wrote an "e" and a "t". then she asked me how to write an "a", so i showed her and then she wrote one. and here it is....
g...r...e...t...a. she wrote her name all by herself!! can you see it? i could stare at this picture forever, i think it's so amazing. and she was so proud. i mean, SO proud. and guess what she did next??

greta writes

greta told me she was going to write some letters today. she would write a random shape (or it seemed random) on the magna doodle and then either she or i would comment what letter it looked like. she drew many many O's...and a few other letters as well. i couldn't tell if it was actually random or if she was trying to form letters. and then she said, "i'm going to write my name" and she wrote these two shapes. then she said, "i wrote a G and a T. do you see my G and my T?" i was so shocked....it was pretty amazing. she was SO proud! i took the video below after the initial moments, so i am still so excited (as you can tell by the pitch of my voice, sorry) and she has sort of moved on. but still....
in the class i am teaching this summer we have talked about encouraging children to view themselves as writers, and i think i experienced it first hand today.