My Alphabet Woes

The more Toby learns the more I recognize my own shortcomings as a teacher. Right now he is learning the alphabet. We can’t go anywhere without him pointing out the letters that he sees. “Look! It’s M for MOMMY!!!” he will say anytime we pass McDonalds. I know I need to cherish the moments of excitement that he has over a McDonalds sign because the M stands for Mommy and NOT because of what he will someday discover it is REALLY all about...

Every letter that he picks out of a word is EQUALLY exciting and said with a breathless exclamation and purposeful point of the finger. Breakfast time takes SIGNIFICANTLY longer because he munches away slowly as he peruses the cereal box searching for letters that he knows. Today was a milestone because he could not only identify every letter in “CORN BRAN” but also in the French “SON DE MAIS”.

Teaching his eager mind the alphabet is an exercise in spontaneous and creative thinking. You never know when you are going to be faced with a NEW letter and be put on the spot with the inevitable question, “What does it STAND for?” I made a fatal flaw with the letter ‘E’ and told him that it stood for Elephant OR Emily. That was confusing on a number of levels, particularly because he doesn’t KNOW anyone named Emily (despite my insistence that I have a very close friend named Emily- - if she’s not in his daycare group she doesn’t count). Now every time we see an E we stop to ponder the fact that it has TWO words that it stands for AND that there is no one at daycare named Emily.

Today, walking down the stairs at daycare he saw the big WELCOME sign and suddenly, in front of all the other mothers, I was on the spot again. What letter was THAT? The letter ‘W’. “OH.” He said matter of factly, “What does W stand for?”

What DOES start with W that a toddler would know? I certainly wasn’t going to hold out on him having a Walter or Wallace in his daycare group.

I went with Walrus and was met with a disappointed look. “WALRUS?” he repeated incredulously with an is-that-the-best-you-can-do? look on his face. “You know, the animal, Walrus with the big tusks” I tried to explain while simultaneously wracking my brain for an alternative W word. “I don’t HAVE a Walrus.” He announced. Indeed he doesn’t. In an attempt to get him out of daycare and earshot of other mothers who had probably taught their kids much better W words I suggested that maybe Santa would bring him one.

As we skulked out of daycare I felt like a double failure in my maternal role. Not only was I severely lacking in the creative alphabet naming part of my brain but also here I was BRIBING my kid with CHRISTMAS presents.

Tonight, after I finish my paperwork and cleaning up from dinner, I’m going to sit down and take a good hard look at the alphabet to ensure I have appropriate words for each letter. (You know I’ll need it when he gets to ‘F’.) Then I’m going to go ensure that I put “stuffed toy walrus” on his Christmas wish list for Grandma…