[img]396|left|Alex Campbell||no_popup[/img]Every once in awhile, I exchange email messages with Maddie, one of my students, who just turned three and a half. She tells her mom what to type, and her mom types it because Maddie can’t type yet. She tells me about what she’s been doing, what is interesting to her, and maybe she’ll ask me a question or two.
Here’s a sampling of some of Maddie’s emails to me:
“We were at the marathon and the dog got my sandwich and we had another one. Happy Christmas (written in April).”
“I want to borrow a pom pom from school. Can you help me with that tomorrow? Wait until you see my craft. I love you.”
“There is a mommy one and a baby one, there’s five baby cats. They are gonna get a new home. The kittens have a happy life. I’m done. Bye bye. Have a good night. I’m eating ice cream and strawberries.”
I love that Maddie’s mom Amy writes down exactly what Maddie is saying in the way that she says it. Every once in awhile, Amy explains what is said, like when a mother cat gave birth to five kittens under Maddie’s grandmother’s porch. But usually, it’s pretty understandable.
Straight Talk
The thing I love about kids is that they tell it like it is. No fluff, no worrying about what they’re saying, no editing. They assume we know the people they’re talking about. They also talk about things grownups take for granted and comment on things we might think mundane.
I like to write back to Maddie in the style she uses to write to me. In other words, like a three and a half year old. I’ve decided to use that style in my column today. Usually, I write my essay out in a notebook, edit as I go along, and then type it out. Today, I’m going to just type whatever I’m thinking as I go along. Here goes:
Today Aileen and Elisa and Monica came over but first we met at the playground. Elisa and Monica were on the swings and it was very loud and I wanted to get some oil for the swings but I didn’t have any. A big beetle was crawling around and I took five pictures of it. It was moving too fast, so a lot of the pictures were fuzzy. And the battery sign was flashing on my camera so I had to charge the battery when I got home.
I have gum in my mouth and it doesn’t taste good anymore.
I saw Vicky today. She came from Venezuela. She used to be one of my kids at school, but then she moved back to Venezuela, but she wanted to visit Boston for a trip. The last time I saw Vicky, she was four years old, and now she is fifteen years old! She hugged me very hard and that was very nice. I almost cried, but I was too excited. I saw her mom and dad again, and I met her brother and sister.
Spaghetti So Yummy
We had pizza for lunch and salad. I didn’t like the cheese on my salad because it was too much but I ate it because it’s good for me and it’s not polite to not eat something when there’s lots of people around.
When I was going home my friend called me and asked me to go to dinner at her house. I said yes and I went over there after. When I got home I was tired so I turned on the TV and I didn’t like what they had on Oprah so I turned off the TV and I put on a CD and I laid down on the couch. Shelby was meowing at me and I patted the couch but she wouldn’t jump up to be with me. I grabbed her but not hard and put her with me but she jumped down again.
And then I was on the computer and then I had to go to Ellie’s house. And David’s house too, and we had yummy yummy spaghetti and sauce and salad with no cheese on it. I had a red, white, and blue dessert because it was raspberry sorbet, and blueberries, and whipped cream. It was sweet and yummy and good for you because it had blueberries.
I want a Pomeranian dog but not really but I liked the one I met in California. She was so cute! But it’s very hard to take care of a dog, so I will just make a big picture of that dog, her name is Meghan, and maybe I will visit her someday. For real life.
My back is hurting from this chair so I will stop now. I have to do my exercises tomorrow. Goodbye. Thank you for reading this. One day you should try writing like this because you think better when you do. It’s not so hard. Try it. Bye.
Ms. Campbell may be contacted at campbellalexandra@hotmail.com
