One of the presents Annalie got for her birthday was a cool hangman game from my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Frank. Annalie got it out today and asked me how to play. I explained the basics of the game to her, then drew three lines on the dry-erase board at the bottom. She happened to guess the letters c and a right away, so she quickly figured out that the word was cat. Next I had her guess the words dog and Troy, both of which she got.

Annalie wanted a turn at being the hangman, and asked what she had to do. I explained she needed to think of a word she knew how to spell, count up the number of letters in it, and draw that many blank lines on the board. I suggested that she could even write the word, draw the lines underneath, and then erase the letters. She nodded, then shooed me out of the room so she could write.

When she called me back in, I could see that she’d drawn seven lines, and laughed to myself. I was certain her word was Annalie. I drew it out, deliberately guessing incorrect letters and exaggerating my dismay. She ate it up, giggling at each wrong letter. To my amazement, when I guessed a correct letter she easily wrote it in the right blank without saying a single letter out loud. When eventually I had gotten all the letters and her name was revealed as the answer, she gleefully asked, “Boy, you didn’t know how good I was gonna be at this game, did you Mom?”

Annalie wanted another turn at being the hangman, but her name is pretty much the only word she can consistently spell without help. I suggested we play another game. Lately I’ve been trying to work with her on certain words that she should probably know by sight without having to sound out, so I wrote a few of those on the board for her to try. She didn’t recognize any of them (and, is, it, on, off) without sounding them out—but she DID sound them all out correctly. I wrote a few pairs of opposites for her to read (on/off, up/down, tall/short, left/right) and she was able to read all of those as well with only a little bit of help on right.

After that Annalie was done with the game and just wanted to write and draw on the dry-erase board. We moved from the bed to the desk in the office, which is an arrangement I wish she would agree to more often. I love sitting in that sunny room with a cup of coffee and my laptop, facing the open window with a breeze coming in, listening to music and hanging out with my kid.

We hadn’t been sitting there very long today when Annalie piped up, “Look, Mom! P-O-P, pop! I sounded it out!” I looked over to see that she had indeed written the word pop on the dry-erase board.

“Wow, Annalie, that’s exactly right!” She beamed at my praise, and rightfully so. That’s the first time she’s sounded out and written a word completely on her own, and to my knowledge it’s not a word anyone has ever spelled out for her before. Since the camera was handy, I grabbed it and documented the moment. Please excuse the vacuum cleaner and inflated air mattress in the background.

Annalie wasn’t done yet. “I know another word to sound out! Watch.” She carefully wrote APL then used the pen to point at each letter as she recited it. “A-P-L spells apple!”

“Annalie, that’s almost exactly right! That’s great!” I showed her where to add the extra P and the E, but she airily waved me off. She erased the board and wrote TAI, then looked expectantly at me. “Tie?” I ventured.

“Yes! That’s exactly right, Mama!” Annalie grinned at me. Close enough, babe. Close enough.

I think our days of being able to spell words out to keep secrets from her are severely numbered. She’s going to be reading in earnest any minute. I can hardly wait!