Tuesday, September 29, 2009

power of reading - 17months old

Zo Ee at 17months 2weeks old. (28/9/2009)

Conversation 1
Mummy has been telling Zo Ee that we will be taking an aeroplane back to Ipoh soon and we will be meeting po-po, yeh-yeh, mah-mah, gong-gong, gu-jie, gu-cheong, etc.

Mummy: Zo Ee, we will be taking an aeroplane soon. We are flying back to?
Zo Ee: Ipoh
Mummy: We are going to meet?
Zo Ee: po-po
Mummy: and?
Zo Ee: yeh-yeh
Mummy: and?
Zo Ee: silence (she seems to only remember po-po and yeh-yeh)

Upon hearing little Zo Ee's replied, Daddy was curious, wonder does Zo Ee really understand what an aeroplane is. So Daddy asked little Zo Ee,
Daddy: Zo Ee, What is aeroplane?
Zo Ee: Aeroplane flies... zoom....(Daddy was amazed!)
Daddy : Where is aeroplane?
Zo Ee: up sky. (again Daddy was amazed!)

And today, Mummy asked little Zo Ee again,
Mummy: Zo Ee, What is aeroplane?
Zo Ee: fly very fast. (Oh! Mummy was amazed too.)

Mummy has only taught her that we are going to take an aeroplane soon and who we will be meeting there. The rest of the answers given by Zo Ee was from a book that she had read months ago.

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Conversation 2
Mummy: Zo Ee, what is this? (Mummy gave her a cotton ball during diaper time)
Zo Ee: Cotton ball.
Zo Ee: Light and fluffy. Squeeze! Squeeze! (squeezing with her fingers)
Mummy: Where does cotton come from?
Zo Ee: Cotton plant.
Zo Ee: put back (giving the cotton ball back to Mummy)

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Conversation 3
Mummy: Zo Ee, what is this? (Mummy was showing her the dragon fruit.)
Zo Ee: Dragon fruit.
Mummy: Zo Ee, what is Mummy doing? (Mummy was cutting the dragon fruit.)
Zo Ee: Cutting fruit.
Mummy: Zo Ee, what is this? (Mummy was showing her the knife.)
Zo Ee: Scissors. (Ha! Ha! Mummy has not taught her the word knife yet, so little Zo Ee was associating Mummy's action "cutting" with the word "scissors" as she knows that scissors is used for cutting.)
Mummy: This is a knife. Mummy is using a knife to cut the dragon fruit.
Zo Ee: Looking at Mummy in silence.
Mummy: Zo Ee, what is this? (Showing little Zo Ee the knife again.)
Zo Ee: Knife. (Bravo. That's my little Zo Ee, needing only one time teaching now. And she will remember this thing called knife from now on.)

Later, when Zo Ee was eating the dragon fruit, she commented this to Mummy.
Zo Ee: Seeds. (pointing to those black seeds.)
Mummy: Yes, those are seeds. Black seeds, aren't they?
Zo Ee: Many seeds. (again pointing at the seeds.)
Mummy: Yes, many tiny seeds.
Zo Ee: Eating. (Ha! ha! little Zo Ee was telling Mummy that she's eating those seeds.)

And again, Mummy won't be surprised if little Zo Ee were to tell Mummy, "many tiny seeds." when she eats another dragon fruit in the near future. That's how fast little Zo Ee is picking up and familiarizing herself with language nowadays.


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Isn't this amazing? She is able to extract(recall) many answers from various library books that she had read earlier, maybe months or weeks ago. This is truly the power of reading, isn't ?

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