Golden Words

The other night at knitting group we talked about Alzheimer's because Mum is writing a book about her mum, who has the disease. C, who is knitting gorgeous red cushion covers, said that she read that people with Alzheimer's retain their emotional memory, even when their recall of words and memories of events have faded.

Maybe that's the same with all of us. I am too sensible to listen to dumb-ass pop music but I do and I love it. It takes me back to the days of my childhood when my sisters and I would make up dances and perform them in costume for guests.

One of the joys of being a parent for me is to experience anew so many of the great aspects of my own childhood with Z.

Mum and I spent the majority of the last few days reading and writing. I feel so lucky that I inherited her love of language and literature.

And I feel just as lucky when Z puts his hand over my mouth when we are reading because he wants to sound the words out for himself.

This afternoon we received this in an email from his teacher:

I just wanted to touch base to say that Z is really showing a keen interest in his reading and he is now working on level 2 books. His knowledge of the Golden Words is very good, which is also helping with his writing. We are seeing that he is looking for the sounds in words and is using high frequency words such as 'and' and 'the' etc. This is great to see!