Spell it

For a couple of months now, we've noticed that Evan is able to sight read words. It started out with logos (Honda, McDonald's, Splash Lagoon) and then moved on to his name, Mom, Dad, hockey, apple juice--you know, the important stuff. He picks up words in often read books, or things he sees on a regular basis. Every few days he'll surprise us by reading something new (yesterday, in fact, the word was "new"). It's pretty exciting.

Then a few weeks ago, Ev started to spell. First just his name--he typed it for me on a computer keyboard, but he can also just spell it out loud or tell you how to write it. Using hand-over-hand he can write his letters correctly, but he has a hard time holding the pen and using firm enough pressure on his own. So he spells his name, and he spells mom "M-A-M". Close enough, right? And that's all he would spell for a while.

Then the other day, Mike says, "Spell Dad."

So Evan says, "M-I-K-E Mike!"

We were shocked. We didn't even know Evan knew Mike's first name, let alone how to spell it. I don't call Mike "Mike" around the house, not ever--I always call him "Michael J" or "Daddy". So that was pretty funny. We taught him to spell "dad" correctly at that time, which he can do, but if you ask him you're still more likely to get "Mike". Ev can also spell "car" and "house", and he seems to be picking up new words all the time in both reading and spelling. Like "Pittsburgh" and "baseball". But I still think it will be a few years before he can spell our last name.