spelling?

New and remarkable development this week- Charlotte has begun spelling things. I think it started with one of her ST videos, in which she was introduced to the sign for refrigerator, which is spelled out as R - E - F. She's not so great at making the letters with her fingers; comes close, but misses some of the small details like the fingers being crossed for the letter R. But she recites the letters as she attempts to sign them, and she clearly knows that R - E - F means refrigerator. She also loves to spell S - T - O - P, sometimes forgetting the S, and R - U - G. While reading "Good night, Gorilla (her current fave)" tonight, she pointed to the word "zoo" and declared "Two Os!" In addition to her singing and general babble, she now strings together apparently-random letter sequences, then looks at me as if to ask if she spelled a real word. She came out with "red" and "wet" today and was very excited when I told her she had spelled words that I could understand.

I may focus on early-reader books on our next library visit. This is so exciting!