Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Big Words

Here's a picture of the kids enjoying Mum's (my mom) jacuzzi tub. They had a ball and stayed in here about an hour. Taken with my phone camera - so not great quality.





I'm thinking the soccer video post isn't going to happen - I forgot that there were other kids on the team. Their parents might not want me to post pics of their kids.

On an unrelated note - I just watched an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis on the today show. She's promoting her most recent book - Big Words for Little People. I love this. She said that in a previous book aimed at 4 year olds, her editor wouldn't let her use the word "consequence" because it wasn't appropriate for the age group. She was disappointed and so now she's written this book.

I really like the message she's promoting. My husband and I made a conscious decision when we had children that we would not dumb down our vocabulary and use "baby talk" with them. For example, if they say "baba" we still say "bottle". Not that we correct them or don't speak to them in an age-appropriate way... we just try to model correct pronunciation - and we go ahead and use the big words and let them try them out too. Brother's vocabulary is pretty impressive at this point (and he'll ask when he doesn't know a word and then try it out later) - and Little Bitty has big ideas - even if she doesn't have all the words to describe them yet. Plus, her inflection and expressions seem to indicate that she is going to also enjoy language like her Brother.

So - I'm tucking this book away on a list of possible gifts for Little Bitty - our maybe for a less fortunate child who doesn't have linguisticly gifted parents.

2 comments:

TheOilHippie said...

I will definitely be checking out this book. We have never talked baby talk with our kids. It started because I just couldn't do it - I felt silly. My boys vocabulary is amazing for their age.

Mama Bear said...

The book sounds really interesting. We never did the "baby" talk either with any of our kids and always corrected when they'd say "wa wa" for water and etc. so that's interesting that it's in the book.

LOVE the picture in the tub. What a fun time, think I would have stayed in there an hour too, hahahaha!

Rhonda