The other day, I was astounded at the progress my son has made in learning.
He is fascinated with animals and books. If he’s not watching Deadly 60 or any other BBC natural history programmes, he’s flicking through his growing library of animal literature. I’m particularly proud of his interest in literacy – it’s not been forced on him, he just enjoys books. A rarity in today’s youth.
When he got into bed, he noticed one of the pages in his Deadly 60 book had lost it’s dog-eared corner:
“Mummy, you’ve lost my goshawk.”
Without hesitation or any prompting, he turned to the contents, scanned the list:
“G-O-S… Goshawk. Eight-Zero”
He then flicked through the pages, counting past 50, 60, 70… “Eight Zero!”
He had found his Goshawk.
“See Mummy, I’ve found my Goshawk now.”
For a five year old, I’m amazed at three things here:
- His ability to scan book contents looking for the word using phonetics
- Counting beyond 20 (the benchmark for Key Stage 1)
- His extensive knowledge of lesser-known animals
This probably bears little interest to other people. It just seemed like a momentous occasion that should be recorded on my son’s development.