She is 21 months old and is already playing around with where letters sit in words. I’m not teaching her spelling, she is just playing and making words by herself.
I first noticed her try and spell her own name first. She was playing with the fridge magnets while I was busy doing the dishes, I happen to look down and notice she is being very careful about what letter she chooses and where they go. I look again and realise that she is trying to spell “Chloe” She had the Capital letters out and had “C” at the start then used the “I” on its side to look like a “H” then the “L” then the letter “Q” (o was missing that day) and then “G”
So really she spelt “CHLQG” so I guess you could say she isn’t spelling (but is trying and this is only the start) I asked her what it said and she said “Chloe” with one clap of her hands to acknowledge she done well. I then helped her spell it correctly and we moved onto something else. Meanwhile I was like “did that really happen?”
Then maybe a week later she did the same sort of thing but with her dad this time. She was playing with the letters again and with a lot of concentration she began to lay the letter out in a line “P” “U” “G” Her Dad asked her what she was spelling and she looked up to him and signed “pig” Dad said you need to replace the u for an i, so off she went and found the letter i and came back to do it again. This time she placed the “g” first then the “i” then the “p”. Dad didn’t say anything and just watched her thinking about it for a few seconds before all by herself she picked up the “g” and the “p” and swapped them around. She then said in a very clear proud voice “pig” I think dad was in just as much shock as I was.
Today it happened again, she was playing with her alphabet puzzle and lined up some letters “stni” She looked at them and turned the n upside down into a “u” and placed it between the “t” and the “i” She then did the sign for Tui (our pet dog) and picked up the “s” and put it away on the shelf.
Ahhh how is she doing this? What should I do from here? She has done this three time now that I have noticed, I cant ignore it or brush it off any longer. She seems to do this when we least expect it. Has anyone else had their kid start spelling after learning to read from sight words? What did you do next? I guess just keep letting them have a chance to play with letters and keep seeing word might be enough for short term. I guess I really just didnt think I would have to start thinking about spelling before she was even two. kids are amazing!
Thanks Mela Bela for your advice (via facebook) about choose a word to spell each week, I will try and do that.