Thanks to everyone who told me to chill out. :)

[elektra]

DD seems to finally be interested in letters!
A few months ago I was getting concerned that she had no interest in letters, writing, reading etc., and I was wondering if I should start breaking out worksheets and drills, even though that was never in my plans.
You all pretty much told me to chill out. :)
And she is now wanting to spell out everything- making up games where she lays out letter blocks for me to sound out- then she take letters away and I sound out what's left.
It's like she is all of a sudden completely excited about it! And she has gotten over her issues with trying to write and she is just going for it.

So thanks y'all. :)

[twowhat?]

I missed the original thread but thanks for posting this! Ours are only 3 but it seems like all our friends have 3yos (and YOUNGER) who already recognize and/or write all their letters. Ours can sing the alphabet and recognize some key letters (O, X, A) but that's it.

So...now I will go chill out:)

[arivecchi]

Yay DD! Yep, IME (even though it is limited :)), it is quite hard to force them to be interested in things before they are ready.

[elektra]

I missed the original thread but thanks for posting this! Ours are only 3 but it seems like all our friends have 3yos (and YOUNGER) who already recognize and/or write all their letters. Ours can sing the alphabet and recognize some key letters (O, X, A) but that's it.

So...now I will go chill out:)

My DD always seemed behind to me compared to her classmates and same-age cousins who have been writing their names for about a year now. I was concerned too that she just didn't know this stuff and didn't care to know it. We read books, including ones that had letters and such that encouraged pre-reading ("a" is for "apple" and the like) but she just never seems to want to play along.
She will be 5 in March so I was getting concerned. But she has come around. I am now glad that I didn't force the issue.

[AnnieW625]

just wait until kindrrgarten. My DD's preschool did handwriting without tears last year and I thought it was good for DD, but the first few weeks of kindergarten were hand writing boot camp, which was a pain, but it is really like clockwork for her now.

[elektra]

I think a lot of it has to do with her school. I really like it and the longer we go, the more I think they know what they are doing.
They are very play-based and focus on art, hands-on science, woodworking, and other things besides the three R's. But they are starting to do some more letter writing stuff, to help them prep for K, and I think DD is responsive to their techniques. :)

[sste]

I remember your original post - - I have sometimes had that thought too of "is everyone raving about play-based learning and then drilling their kids with flash cards in secret?!"

Our DS sounds very much like your DD -- he has to be ready and he is not persuaded by parental efforts in advance of that. He just turned 4 and we haven't taught him any letters or numbers. He picked up some of them at school but it is very incomplete at this point and we are just waiting (in part due to laziness I confess!) for the rest to sink in at preschool. FWIW, in my day to day conversation with DS I def. emphasize logic/analytics, making inferences, etc (not formally but by asking him why x happened or what he thinks is likely to happen next or what is the problem with a or b situation) as well as creativity and constructing his own narratives - - as a result he is very solid in those areas. But he can't tell an "i" from an "l" or even identify easier letters like d, f, etc at this point!

Anyway, very excited to hear about your DD's great leap forward toward reading/writing!