She's been singing the ABC Song since she was probably 15-18 months but I always chalked it up to 1) she could speak (clearly) at a pretty young age and 2) her love of music. She began to actually recognize letters around a year or so ago but it was only a few letters here and there. But in the last few months I've been truly amazed at what she has picked up and we honestly can't take any credit for it because it's not something I really feel like we've played much of a part in. Sure we bought her the magnetic alphabet to put on the fridge (and subsequently took them away because she preferred to throw them under the fridge) and we've provided her with tons of books which she loves to have read to her, but we've only ever occasionally sat down with her and actively reviewed the alphabet. She's pretty much taken all of the initiative herself.
It really started over the summer after I had finished painting Q's name to hang on their wall. Y's name has always been up on the wall in a similar fashion but it wasn't until I hung Q's name that she begin to take an interest in the letters. She recognized some of the letters and didn't recognize others but the ones she didn't know, she asked about. Many times while I was nursing Q she would look up at the letters hanging on the wall and call them out and then one day she really realized that she was spelling her own and Q's name. And after that it was like a light bulb came on! Since then she has really taken to letters and realizing that letters form words.
She has learned how to open up a Word document just so she can type. It's gotten to the point that she recognizes the icon for a Word document and will just click on any icon she sees that represents a Word document and thus I've had to stop storing any Word document on my desktop in fear that she will open and alter it with a bunch of random letters. Whenever we are out we have started to play the game, Eye Spy using letters and she absolutely loves it. If we're watching television and she sees a B, U, Q, or I she will get all excited and say "mommy, that's your letter" if she's seeing a U because she knows my name begins with a U. She will do this with any of the first letters of our name. Yes, that does mean that she is learning to spell all of our names! She has spelling Q's name down, she pretty much has my name and her own down and she's just now starting to take a crack at B's name.
For Christmas Santa brought her a Fisher-Price iXL and she has discovered that she can use it to trace her alphabet both big and little, needless to say she loves it! And I've noticed her trying to write them on pieces of paper laying around. She is a long way from perfecting any of those letters, but with her determination I guarantee you it's only a matter of time!
