Evelyn’s reading

It’s just so much fun to see Evelyn learning how to read. She’s really coming along.

Tonight, I was listening as she read one of her favorites aloud, “Sleeping Beauty” (Disney version). I know a lot of her “reading” is memorization, but it’s really so cool to watch her mind working.

So she gets to the part where the good fairies are preparing a birthday surprise for Briar Rose, and they send her out to pick berries.

Evelyn pauses for a long moment, and then, in a serious and monotone voice, asks, “Wouldn’t it have been better for them not to send her out and forget about trying to surprise her?”

I laughed so hard I was almost crying. She was just so earnest, so genuine, in trying to figure out the reasoning behind the characters’ actions.

Then, at the end, she quickly got silly and decided to skip the last few pages (of the scene between Phillip and Malificent the dragon). When I asked her what had happened in the intervening pages, she said, “Aaaaaand, the dragon went to sleep, so Prince Phillip walked by and went to the tower.”

I know that this is all normal developmental stuff, but I just have to say that I think human acquisition of language and literacy are FASCINATING.