After a period of dormancy, DS23mo has picked up reading/spelling with renewed fervour. We have an app (will report back with the name) that allows him to drag and drop letters to write simple 3- and 4-letter words. This is his newest craze. We also draw pictures and use magnetic letters to subtitle the illustrations. My crappy stick figures are slowly evolving into more discernible pictures.

This morning while I tidied, DS decided to spend about 10 minutes naming off words at random and their starting letter/sound. (A harder game we play is identifying ending sounds.) We also played a game where we'd draw letters at random from a jar and identify vehicles whose names started with the letter selected. "G" drew a surprising blank, since he loves garbage trucks and graders, but DS improvised "gucker truck", which made us both laugh. A gucker truck is apparently one that does mucker jobs...

I suppose this isn't so much a brag as a global progress report. It's just such fun seeing DS carve out his own method for learning to read, and I love that all this is happening organically through free reading and play.

Oh, while I remember, here's one last story! DH and I were surprised when DS read a shop sign (Hermes) on a walk last week. I KNEW it was reading and not memory because DH and I always pronounce Hermes in French, while DS pronounced it as the Greek god's name.

What is to give light must endure burning.