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Sometimes reality interferes...

Eleanor and Amanda have very firm ideas about how the world should be. Unfortunately, their ideas only sometimes match reality.

Eleanor yesterday went to the local kids museum. She saw there a tool that she had read about, but hadn't ever talked about before. "Mama, is that a CRAW-chette hook?" "Yes, that is a crochet hook!" When we talked about it later, she steadfastly refused to pronounce the word in the standard way. I think she feels that everyone else should understand her, she has no real need to make herself understood. When pressed, she would only say,"I like to call it a CRAW-chette hook."

Amanda this morning was eating corn flakes. She asked for some more: "Mama, could I have some rice krispies?" I answered, "Sure, you can have some corn flakes." "Well, I think they are rice krispies. What letter does rice krispies start with?"

We discussed this, and when we had determined that rice krispies start with R, she looked on the box. "Mama, where is the R on the box?" She seemed to imply that perhaps I really didn't know what I was talking about, and rice krispies really started with a C... I again told her that she was actually eating corn flakes, but it really doesn't make sense to argue with a 3 year old about dreary things like facts and reality.

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Anonymous said…
Well, I'm sure that the question was something more specific about vocabulary development. So if you count up the number of words kids produce, and you compare it to the number of words kids comprehend, then comprehension precedes production for most words.

But you make a good point, so I'll give you partial credit... I think that even adults use words they don't fully understand.

Love,
FNDP
May 9, 2008 at 7:47 AM
Gary said…
I remember refusing to put a "t" sound in the first syllable when I said "Mozart" because, after all, i knew how to read, and there was no t there. Then in 7th grade I took German and started pronouncing it correctly ;)

-Lenise
May 12, 2008 at 10:59 PM
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