A Little Bragging

I have been teaching a friend's 8-year-old daughter piano lessons in exchange for some babysitting time for Zoe. Zoe has really taken a liking to this friend of mine, Elizabeth. Elizabeth calls Zoe a "genius" as she also has a nephew a month older than Zoe who is nowhere near Zoe in his cognitive abilities. The other day Elizabeth and Zoe were coloring while I was giving Elizabeth's daughter a piano lesson. Elizabeth later told me that she was drawing a circle, and when she told Zoe that was what she had drawn, Zoe told her "No, it's an oval!" Elizabeth said she had to concede, as it was indeed an oval, even though she had intended to draw a circle. I guess there aren't many 22 month olds who can correctly identify not only circles, squares, and triangles, but also rectangles, stars, hearts, ovals, and even pentagons.

I'll also add, while I am at it, that Zoe has known all her colors for well over two months, including brown, black, pink, gold, etc. Several weeks ago, we were playing with her sidewalk chalk and she pulled out a peach colored piece and she correctly labeled it as "peach" (not pink) even though I have NEVER taught her that. I figure that is something that Grandma H must have taught her.

As long as I am bragging, I will tell you about Zoe's developing math skills. She can typically correctly count to 5 and then get random numbers all the way up to 10. At least until recently. Recently, Grandpa H bought her some flashcards to practice numbers and counting all the way up to 20. Now Zoe can say all the numbers up to 20, though not all in the right order. She does, however, continue to count to 5 correctly, and always knows that 11 and 12 come after 10. Go figure. I swear, this kid grasps things after only a single exposure.

I don't think I've mentioned that she began singing a couple months ago. It is about as sweet as sweet gets. It started out as random little melodies in this sweet little girl singing voice...bits and pieces from songs like "Lullaby and Goodnight" "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Rock a by Baby". Now she sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" beginning to end correctly and "Rock a by Baby" beginning to almost end correctly. If she ever misses words or replaces words, she still always gets the melody and intonation correct. She also started singing "Skip to my Lou." She loves it when I sing the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know it" with the words "If you're Zoe and you know it" when I get to "...say I am..." Zoe belts out a resounding "I am!"

Have I exhausted my bragging rights once again?