Life with an Emerging Reader

Here is a sample of what life with Sadie has been like lately:

Sadie: Does charisma start with a "c" or a "k"?

Me (trying to proof a particularly onerous college catalog): A "c" (where did she learn THAT word?)

Sadie: Does Genevive start with a hard "g" or soft "g"?

Me: (Still trying to proof so no response)

Sadie: Does Genevive start with a hard "g" or soft "g"? Mom? Mom?

Me: A soft "g."

Sadie: Does giraffe start with a hard "g" or soft "g"?

Me (giving up on proofing for the time being): Soft.

And then there is my other favorite:

Sadie (from ALL the way upstairs): Mom, how do you spell the great detective adventure?

Me (from ALL the way in the kitchen and currently engaged in helping Ella with her homework): Could you come down here and do this?

Sadie (from ALL the way upstairs): Okay!

She comes down, gets the letters for the first word, then goes back upstairs.

A few minutes later, from ALL the way upstairs: How do you spell detective?

Sigh.

She is also entering that wonderful stage where she is tagging everything (everything!) with her first and last name now that she knows how to write it.

Over the weekend I asked her when she got so smart (the kid is seriously with it for a four-year-old, making connections sometimes that shock me), and she said, "When I started communicating with you." For those of you following along at home, that was right around six months (eight months?) when she said "Ella" for the first time. She hasn't stopped talking yet.

Of course, the spelling and phonics questions aren't nearly as entertaining as the math questions (What is three plus one? What is two plus three?), which become all the more urgent when I am trying to work.