Orthography

Nicholas has a habit of trying to do the hard part of a new skill first: he tried to walk before he could crawl, and his second "word" was almost a sentence.

Now he's been learning his letters and noticing words (when the letters are uppercase, and I've decided not to teach him yet why they're called that). So what are the first two words he can spell?

NICHOLAS is first. Now, it's a difficult word, polysyllabic, with odd sounds ("ch" as "k"). But it is his name, so he sees it plenty and it's very familiar.

The second word: XAVIER, which he noticed on Sarah's sweatshirt last weekend. He practiced a few times and has started to memorize it. He's been practicing too. We happened to see in Target this weekend a bath toy that consists of foam letters that stick to the side of the tub when they get wet. He's been very excited about this new toy. The first time he had them he immediately wanted to spell Nicholas, and then insisted that we try Xavier as well, so we did. He's got his name down pretty well, actually, and he's getting better with Sarah's alma mater.

At this point, I'm basically expecting that he'll be trying to take derivatives before he can add and compose poetry in iambic pentameter before he can write a sentence.