P-H-O-upside-down P . . .

Last Friday I went to Phoebe's class to read a Dr. Seuss book. Afterward she wanted to come to my class and "sit in your lap while you teach." Despite the fact that I almost never sit down while teaching and the fact that I didn't have any students in my classroom at the time, I brought her to my room as requested. She entertained herself by climbing on desks, erasing the board, and drawing on scraps of bulletin-board paper.

When the bell rang at the end of the day, some of my students arrived to work on a project. One of them has taken it upon herself to win Phoebe's trust. She walked over to where Phoebe was drawing on the floor, and in no time at all Phoebe was bossing her around, asking her to write her name.

"P-H-O," Phoebe instructed her, and then she faltered. "Upside down P," she continued. "E-E-B!"

End result: Phobeeb.

Not bad.

Keeping Your Weights

The route Phoebe and I take from the car to her classroom involves walking along a sidewalk at the top of a small but steep hill. One day, since she likes to walk on the very edge of the sidewalk, she nearly fell down the hill into the rocky drainage ditch below.

"Oh," she said, relieved, "I kept my weights."

"Kept your weights?" I asked.

"Yes. Like Harold."

I realized that she was talking about the moment in Harold and the Purple Crayon when Harold is falling but "kept his wits and his purple crayon," allowing him to get himself out of trouble once again.

Reading to Baby

Phoebe likes to read to herself at night--and to her "baby" (who is required to use his paci).

The Little Reader

This summer I read The Book of Learning and Forgetting by Frank Smith. He argues that learning is natural and based on the company we keep. We learn to be readers by joining the literacy club, the group of people around us whom we see reading and talking about reading. The day after I'd been up nearly all night writing a reflection on the book for one of my reading classes (and was rushing Phoebe off to daycare so I could get to that class), I heard a little voice from the backseat asking me why I had been writing in my book. Before I could finish my gobbledygook about transacting with the text, she asked for the book and my pen. She opened it to the title page and drew me a balloon (upside down).

Who's busy as a bee?

Where's My Doggie?

Phoebe was so excited to pick Scutter up from the vet today. When we got home, she invited him into her bed where she read Grace for President to him. While it didn't make for a great nap, it was awfully sweet.