My clandestine language skills

Being a mother for the past fourteen years has helped me develop a very specific set of skills.

Some of these skills are more pragmatic than others.

One ability I only occasionally pull out of my pocket anymore is my childhood language talent.  This particular skill set allows me to interpret language.  It comes in ultra handy when chatting with toddlers (and, actually, was very nice to have when speaking with three beloved stroke victims over the past couple of years).  

It's also a usable skill when kindergarteners bring you a paper and say, "Mom, look what I wrote!"

Since many kindergarten students are just beginning to develop the skill of sounding out words in order to write them down, their spelling is sometimes left a bit wanting.  

And that's where my shelved language skills are put to the test.

Last night, Logan brought his dad and me this paper and asked us to read what he wrote.  So I plunged in head first.

(In case your toddler language skills are a little rusty this sentence reads: "I was playing in my tree house doing lot of..."  If you are a connoisseur of Jigsaw Jones you will recognize this as the start of the first chapter of one of his books.  We happen to have said book on CD and it is a favorite around here.)

Josh looked at me in awe as I waded through this sentence.  He sometimes forgets how impressive my language skills are when you witness them first hand.  

If you want to brush up on your skills in this arena, feel free to drop by, I have plenty of material on hand.  In fact, I imagine Logan would happily personalize a little something for you if you asked.

Fun!