Before he had even reached his third birthday, Zan was able to count to infinity and recite the alphabet backwards … in his sleep.
Jayna, on the other hand … well, the other day, she was using Zan’s Nintendo DS, and asked me which button to push. “The one with the ‘A’ on it,” I told her. She pressed “Y.”
And numbers? Um, until about a week ago, if asked to count to 10, you could have placed a safe wager on her saying something like, “Oooone, twooooo, threeeee, fiiiiiive, sevennnnn, niiiiine, teennnnnn.”
Last week, while I was in Texas, Wonder Woman bought Jayna this talking puzzle, which recites each number as it is placed in its proper spot. It seems to have worked, because she can almost count to 20 now.
I’d like to say that the reason she isn’t already proficient with letters and numbers is because she’s just very different from her brother, but I’m guessing that it has at least as much to do with the fact that, since she arrived, we’ve been content to just keep the two of them from accidentally setting themselves on fire or drinking drain cleaner.
It’s a good thing we didn’t have a third, or else that kid would have ended up knowing how to do little more than point and grunt by age five.
4 Comments
It’s all about survival after the first….Wonder Women to the resue! I’m trying to learn to count and alphabet in German and I’m right there with Jayna and I’m 39ish! So hard!
I have 4 children, and a friend of mine has 5. Last year we were discussing the difference between your first and each additional child. We put it in terms of Cheerios. With the 1st child you wouldn’t dare let them eat a Cheerio that fell on the floor. With the 2nd child the 5 second rule comes into play. With the 3rd child, you are okay with them sitting on the floor with a pile of Cheerios in front of them. With the 4th child your thought process turns to “man, I hope that was a cheerio he just ate”
Wait, someone expects the third child to do more than point or grunt?? I thought that was normal based on some of the adult guests we meet. I must have a lot of guests that are first and second born because nearly all are delightful.
Your wonder twins are right on schedule… rest assured.
Now, this kid:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/29893110#29893110
he may be a little too ahead of the curve! He literally CAN recite the alphabet backwards at age 6… imagine how frustrated his parents must get trying to give him a simple answer to a complex question… like “where do babies come from?”… scary!