Letters, words, and music

Being an English teacher, I can only hope Tatum loves to read and write. She also loves to La La La and move to the groove. (Her ear for the tune might be off a bit as she has to put up with my car singing!). I have also purchased multiple puzzles, games and those “recommended toys for an 12/18/24 month old.” Her interest in these? Mmmmmm about 2 seconds. Many tell me, “Oh, just let her discover them and she’ll be on them for many minutes!” Not so much. In fact, today when I was in the other room, I peaked in to only find Tatum in Coti’s little house (with the gate closed, so she wanted to be alone!!) singing the words in her Baby’s First Book of Prayers.

When she eventually saw me peeping, she yelped, “Bye!” and waved her hands to me to shoo. Apparently she was in her zone. She was gleefully turning the pages and just singing babbley words intermingling la la’s.

Well, after that episode, we retired to my bedroom so she could continue to play as I cleaned out my disastrous desk. Then, she noticed my travel Scrabble game in a coffee cup and had to see this. I decided to play this with her and she ended up enjoying the dice and saying each letter. “E!!!”… “Mmmmmm”!

So do I surmise that Tatum will be the next wordsmith genius and/or scream, “Hooray!” because she loves books!? All I know is the minute we go to her room everyday, she rushes to her stack and pulls out the book du jour. The fish puzzles? Nope. The stacking cups? For a second maybe. My challenge is keeping it interesting by constantly stocking the variety. Boynton books, Jesus Loves Me, Goodnight Moon and Gorilla are her latest favs. I will keep trying however with various ideas. Usually they are NOT toys so of course my ideas must be safe!
My latest ideas which I have stolen from many: