Teaching Daddy...
My daughter is currently learning to read two-letter combinations in her pre-school. The last couple of days, whenever I asked her to tell me what sound 'th' or 'sh' made, she always followed up her answer with "Its a digraph, appa". I initially assumed that she was talking about some unrelated word that she had happened to pick up from school. I'll even admit to thinking, a tad condescendingly, that her overactive imagination had combined the words 'tiger' and 'giraffe' to come up with a name for an exotic new animal in the forest!
But her repeated usage of the word whenever I asked her the question convinced me look it up on the internet. Turns out its I who could be accused of having an overactive imagination since digraph is the correct name for a pair of letters used to write one sound! I did not know that.
So years after burying myself in the Barron's guide while preparing for GRE's verbal section and after devouring several books, a new word just got added to my vocabulary courtesy my 4 year-old daughter. Just goes to show that one's never too old to learn and more importantly, one's never too young to learn from...
Balaji's Thots... [Permalink]
Your Thots (14)
14 Comments:
pulikku porandhadhu poonai aagumaa :)
great going englishkaari :)
16-adi paanjittiye maa 3-adi ponney!
She is like Lord Murugan teaching Pranava to his dad Lord Siva... Child's voice always like a KJY's night-time melody songs for anybody..
Vilaiyum Payir mulaiyile theriyum..
when will she start writing reviews? I'm looking fwd to it :-)
Yeap!!!
Good to hear that she knowignly or unknowingly teach you english words....:):)
And i'm bet younger generation learn and respond way better than us...
Your kid is intelligent...
The kids these days are amazing !!!
Some years ago, I read a theory on why kids are born smart these days, crediting a part of it to the evolutionary cycle that is still continuing. Moreover the availability of refined information of great relevance to the need at the appropriate time has given these children a massive edge in comparison to what we had at our times. I wonder I ever wondered about Spelling Bee contests when I was five. These kids take it up like a prestige issue. Competition also has its part to play.
I have a daughter. Just 2 months now. Still a long way to go. But, it would be like just yesterday when my daughter would come up to me and say... Appa, that is just serendipitous! :-)
Kaavyava kokka.. :-)
I very much agree with your last paragraph.. there is always something to learn.. As others said, the genes from the parents have a big role in determining the intelligence of the kids..
Very Balaji
same with my daughter too, amazing how these young ones pick up things.
so, extending that we could say tamil movies are polygraphic ;-) same story line
Yep, these kids learn much more than we ever did. My kid's spelling tests come back with so many markings, feels like another language - phonetics.
WTG, Kavya!
well, I learnt that word too, courtesy your daughter :-)
Balaji, on an unrelated note,what is your take on some desis here feeling that their kids begin to develop a strange accent of speaking Tamil at home and so on. Often this also accounts for their decision to even go back to Desh. Can this be effectively combated at home or is it something that one has to eventually live with?
haha
i didnt know that either..
:)
kaps, she already has. chk out the review for 'madagascar' ;)
rubic, not that long a way to go! time really flies when its to do with your kids :)
raju, "genes from the parents have a big role in determining the intelligence of the kids" - adhaan kavya ivlo smarta iruka-nu aacharyama iruku :)
munimma, another word :)
vijay, never mind the strange accent. its a wonder if they even talk in tamil. since they spend so much time in daycare/school, its not surprising that they don't pick up tamil or speak with an accent if they do. only way to deal with it is to speak in tamil with them @ home. but thats easier said than done. kavya picked up more tamil the 3 wks we were in india than she'd done in 3 yrs here! but personally, that wouldn't be something deciding if i am going back or not. much bigger things to worry about :)
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