learning to read and write

gillian has just bloomed in kindergarten. it's really mind-blowing, actually. she went from not reading at all (we think she was pretending not to...afraid she might fail at it, since that's a big part of her personality--not wanting to fail at new things) to reading everything in sight.

and now she's even writing whole sentences, complete with end punctuation. on the way back from virginia, she announced to everyone that she was writing a story. and she did just that--she even added illustrations.

for "homework" (not required but given every week by her teacher), she was asked to write about what she did over thanksgiving break. here's what she wrote. the translation is as follows:

"We went to Virginia. We collected leaves. We saw our cousin. His name was Jackson. He was so cute. We visited my uncle and aunt. They have a cool house. We ate turkey and played a lot. It was so fun." Then there are photos she drew of my parents' house ("Gramparits") and of John & Sara's house ("Myuncleandaunt"). See below one she wrote "Her name is Bale [Bailey]" and "My dog is named Marley."