La La La La Lollipops!

“L.” It may be the most difficult sound to learn to produce in the English language. That and “r.” Like most kids, Captain Chaos has struggled with learning her “l” and “r” sounds. Recently, there has been a language explosion with the girl. I’m not talking about the doubling of her daily word output from ten to twenty gazillion words each day, although that has been a challenge to my central nervous system. I’m sure that’s just genetics. On her mother’s side. This week the girl started clearly pronouncing the letter “l” both mid-word and at the beginning of each word. I noticed this while she was singing a song that she learned in pre-school.

There once was a speckled frog

Who sat on a speckled log,

Eating some most delicious bugs.

Yum! Yum!

He hopped off into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool.

Now there’s no speckled frogs

At all, on the log.

Those may not be the exact words for the song, but it’s as close as I can decipher. What caught my attention was how she slowed down her singing as she worked to produce the “l” in “speckled,” “delicious,” and “log.” I asked her who was teaching her how to say “l.” She told me that it was her preschool teacher, Mrs. Keri. When I asked Mrs. Keri about how she taught the Captain her “l” sounds, Mrs. Keri looked at me like I was insane. I only wanted to know what technique she used because I had been trying without success for months. Keri assured me that it must have been the speech therapist. Captain Chaos assured me that it was not the speech therapist. I think the Captain barely tolerates her trips to the speech therapist. Of all the people she works with in preschool, the speech therapist is the one person the Captain rarely mentions, never voluntarily, and rarely with pleasure.

I discovered the answer to my question when I interrupted the 1, 472 verse of “Speckled Frog” in the van to ask the Captain who had taught her that song. “Speckled Frog” is sorta like “100 Bottles of Beer.” It’s the song that the preschool crowd sings to drive their short-bus drivers insane. When she told me that Mrs. Keri taught her the song I instantly understood who had taught Captain Chaos her “l” sounds and why she didn’t realize that she had done it. It was Mrs. Keri. The Captain mastered her “l” sounds while trying to learn the song.

I have always written that my homeschool is an industrial strength homeschool. We focus on academics, get them completed, and move on with our day. I am not the most creative person when it comes to arts and crafts. This is something upon which I know I must improve. Neither has music been a big part of our homeschool instruction, unless you count teaching the children about 70’s rock. None of the kids really show an interest in singing, with the exception of the girl and her daily rendition of Crocodile Rock. I do regret playing that song for her. It was only this week that the Captain came home from preschool singing a song. When I made the connection between her singing and her speech I was reminded of the importance of incorporating age appropriate music into our home instruction. This reminder made me appreciate even more our decision last year to hold the Captain back from entering kindergarten last September, as well as appreciate the hard work of her special education preschool teacher. Now it’s time to search Youtube for some old Sesame Street Ernie and Bert clips.

La-la-la-la-lollipops…