My daughter is very verbal. She talks all day long. In the car, she wants to play verbal games, have a conversation with you, tell you a story, anything that involves talking. Sometimes I need a break and I ask her if we can listen to a song or audiobook. She listens to audiobooks when she's alone, and just like all children, she likes the attention of her parents whenever she can get it.
Tonight we were running late for bed and the children were overdue for a bath. My husband was marshaling my son into the shower in his room while I headed to my daughter's room to oversee her shower. We got to talking and for some reason, it occurred to me to speak to her in Pig Latin.
It annoyed her because she didn't know what I was saying and after only a few sentences from me, she barked at me to stop talking to her in words I knew she couldn't understand. I wasn't trying to trick her, typically people can pick up what you're saying in Pig Latin fairly quickly, even if they can't speak it themselves.
I explained again, but this time more slowly, how it worked, how to rearrange the letters to make a Pig Latin word. She listened while she washed her hair and then asked me to say certain words. She was understanding it, but she had to think hard about each word and it still wasn't easy for her to understand me after she'd gotten out of the shower.
I told her I had high confidence that by tomorrow night, she would be able to speak it without thinking and that with only a little practice, I knew she could master it, rattling off Pig Latin conversation just as easily as she spoke normally.
She ended the night saying words and listening as I corrected her pronunciation, saying that all words ended with the 'aay' sound, even if it didn't sound that way in her mind when she'd rearranged the letters. Knowing her, tomorrow morning when we get up, I'm betting she greets us in Pig Latin.
The Big Boy Update: My son doesn't like making his lunch and loaths to do it at the end of the night before bed. I tried a different tactic today, saying if he wanted, I'd help him make his lunch when we got home and that way the task would be done and he wouldn't have to hurry at the end of the night. We had a nice time, me cutting up a mango for him while he unpacked today's lunch bag and restocked everything else for tomorrow. I don't want to help every day because it's his responsibility, but it was a good opportunity to try and change making lunch into a more positive daily job.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter worked very hard on the 2020 Braille Challenge materials as practice for the upcoming 2021 competition. She did very well, making some mistakes that were due to hurrying and not thinking slowly. But for the most part, she would have scored very highly. I think she was encouraged because she's going to work on the 2019 practice materials this weekend so she'll be as best prepared as possible.
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