Eavesdropping in the car

Michelle read her homework book in the car. (She often does but reads it at least once to me at home as well...she is supposed to read it aloud to a parent 2 or 3 times each night and as many of her books are very familiar to me, I can help her even if I'm not sitting next to her...and she's reading on grade level. Anyway...)

After she finished, she totally switched into "teacher" mode and began calling on students to tell what happened "first" "next", "then" and "last."
She said, "So, let's talk about what this book was about. First, the boy and the dog see a flood" and she began to tell how the beginning started. She interrupts her own retelling, changing her voice a little and says, "What is the boy's name and the dog's name?" She answers back, "Sam and his dog Spot see that the yard is flooded."

Some more of what I overhead:

"Jasmine, next." "Good job, Jasmine."

"I'll take students who are listening. NO hands right now. Show me that you are listening. Shayla, what did I say? No hands. Okay, Mia, you are listening. What happened then."

"Good job Mia."

"I would call on Michelle because she is listening, but she's already had a turn. Oh, okay Iree. Go ahead."

How darling is that? She could be the teacher. She has it down.

Other things that have impressed me. One day I taught her the generalization "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." I explained that usually when there are two vowels together, the first one is a long vowel sound. About a week later, she saw a word on a sign and said, "Oh, look that word is ____. I know because it has an oa and so the o says long o."

About a week ago, she was reading. She read a sentence that ended in a question mark. She stopped and said, "Oops. I didn't read that with expression. I have to go back and read it again like I'm asking a question." (She reads it again.) "Did I read fluently Mommy? Did you hear how my voice went up like a question?"

She is a little writer. She goes through so much paper writing notes to friends and family, writing notes about school, taking pretend spelling tests, and writing stories. She really, really loves to write. She writes much more in English, but I do find Spanish writing as well.

Anyway, I was chuckling to myself as we drove home today. She sounds just like her teacher, I'm sure. She sounds an awful lot like me when I am at work. ....