First Words | Parents discuss speech development from babies to pre-school

Learning to talk and sharing our experience with our chatting little human. This is the one where Emma (professional linguist) and Elliot chat about chatting... Encouraging first words, mimicking, tips for speech development, nursery rhymes, reading, funny stories, clips of Lilly talking, challenges when your toddler can understand words, speech milestones, jokes and regrets, plus our school education focusing on phonics when learning a language.

Listen to previous episodes mentioned in the conversation:
Part-Time School | Parents discuss Flexi-Schooling plans
Potty Training for babies | Parents discuss elimination communication

If you prefer to watch along on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/@dontwakethebaby_podcast

Engage with us on Instagram
Facebook Group Chat Community

Find resources, Elliot's faith & spirituality projects and more on our website:
www.kairosmovement.org.uk/dontwakethebaby/

Unwind on sleepless nights to a wholesome mix of parenting stories, quirky humour, and cosy crafting. We’re not here to provide answers but to share our experiences, explore how parenting has changed, and build an online community of parents for mutual support.

A fun, honest and unscripted conversation between Emma and Elliot on non-judgemental parenting and millennial-based topics, as we relax on an evening attempting an artistic or creative activity. 

We are a project in partnership with The Kairos Movement and supported by The Methodist Church, of which The Kairos Movement is a part

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:35 Parenting Achievements
• 7:00 Age 1 - First Words
• 20:30 Age 2 - Saying "no"
• 30:30 Why we do the show segment
• 32:10 Age 3 - telling stories
• 44:20 Age 4 - pre school
• 54:50 Ending

Transcript

 So Emma, what are we talking about today? Our chatty little human, how we try to encourage them to talk and maybe now how, maybe they talk too much.

This episode is called First Words.

Spiffing. Good day to you. Welcome sleep deprived parents to the blanket fort here in the Cripping house. Sit and unwind with us for a while. Uh, we chat about parenting, make light of the ups and downs, and just, uh, share generally what's going on in our life. Hopefully it's either relatable or. Interesting.

Possibly, maybe potentially funny. If not, then maybe listen to something else. I dunno. Although you must finish this episode first. Mm-hmm. That's a requirement. If this is the first episode you are ever listening to, gotta assume that those listening. No, nothing. No. You know, nothing. John Snow. I feel like Game of Thrones references, uh, don't go down as well.

Like, 'cause the series ended so badly. No, it's true. I would say I wouldn't say that. Mm-hmm. Um, avoid it. So, yeah, uh, I'm, I'm the husband, Elliot. I'm the wife. Emma. Hopefully you can tell from my voice, although when Lily does impersonate your voice, for some reason it's like shrill, like a little mouse. Yes, it is.

Yes. I don't know why you don't really have a shrill little voice. No, not particularly. I think I'm like, I can go quite high when I'm excited. But I don't talk that about all the time. No. How did, does she, does she, what's the word? Um, impersonate You impersonate me. Does she, she, yes. She goes very low. Does she?

Like, I, I don't talk like this. No, but she, she always goes, I'm bubba. Yeah. It's like, can you be like a big lumbering bear as well? Uh, all that to say, you know, like, we are married. So that's pretty obvious. Um, we have two daughters, Lily and Lola. Um, if you get mixed up, so do we. Yeah, it's our own fault. We call them similar names.

Yeah. One's almost four and one's almost six months. And, uh, we live in Harrogate in North Yorkshire. So welcome to the show. I dunno whether to include this or not, but we, we have had a little break. A bit longer than normal 'cause it's been Easter and it has, people have been busy. We've been busy. Lots of stuff going on.

But um, yeah, we're picking back up now, so if you're listening, we hope you've all had a nice Easter. Yeah. If you're listening in the future or don't listen chronologically or anything like that, then this just doesn't matter to you. That doesn't matter at all. But, um, yeah, good to be back.

It's parenting achievement time. What does that mean, Emma? It means we share something normally, um, sarcastically that has gone very well slash badly for us. Mm. What level of parenting fail have you unlocked? I thought we could chat about, uh, things we've forgotten. Recently. Oh. So, um, uh, particularly, uh, recently it's, we're recording on a Monday.

Not that, you know, and uh, this weekend we had a little day trip to Scarborough did, and one of the things we forgot was the breast pump. We did. Yeah. No one's particular fault. Um, it just, no, no one paid attention. Well, we didn't, it was a very last minute trip, so we didn't know we were gonna go, we had illness going around the house.

Yeah, we think illness. I mean, Lily was sick, so we also dunno if it was just from overusing, who knows what it was. But yeah, it was all a bit chaotic and then I had to go around looking. For a, um, like I didn't wanna buy a new fancy one. 'cause you know, I've got one of those. I think it could be quite expensive and it would, yeah.

Yeah. Especially it's just like a backup. Exactly. I wasn't gonna drop like 60 quid on a breast pump. Mm-hmm. So we had to go around looking for like a manual one. Mm-hmm. Um, so we looked around because it's like, it's what do you do? Like you get there. It's like there's not a lot of options. Is there some people could hand express?

I can't. Mm-hmm. I mean, we should clarify. Maybe, uh, you're not breastfeeding, so No, that's not an option. So I couldn't just give Lola the boob. Yeah. Let's just say we're mix feeding. Mm-hmm. But she doesn't take, like, she doesn't breastfeed properly anymore, so we have to use a breast pump. Mm-hmm. Um, and I'm trying to slow down my supply, but not to that extent where I get ill, um, so we're like, can't just stop for 24.

Full Turkey wasn't an option. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, we, we got another one we did from Sainsbury's. We did. That, well, it's from Argos. Really? It's from Argos in Sainsbury. Yeah. That thing, you know, you get the idea. If you're not English, you'll have no clue what any of those things are, so, ah, maybe it adds to our charm.

There was, there was a shop within another shop where we got it. There you go. Well, on the, on the note of kind of breast milk as well, um. We even now still have a load of frozen breast milk. Yeah. In the freezer. Uh, which has kind of been a fail because you pumped it all and froze it all very diligently.

Diligently back when your supply wasn't great. We got it all there ready. But this was before we knew Lola had a milk protein allergy, cows milk, protein cows that golden. The words. Gum Gumm. You. This is a good episode to talk about speech, isn't it? It is. I'm we'll notice top lo ladder for speech gum.

Right? What was I say? Cow's milk protein. That, that's what I was saying. There we go. Uh, so that meant at the time I was eating cheese in yogurts and things with that in. So none of that, unless she gets over, urology can go to her. It's all useless. Yep. Is sat there. We can't use it. It sat there in hope, just left, forgotten about, but then they said, oh, you shouldn't really keep it more than six months.

And I'm, oh, right. Well it's getting close to that summer was getting close, so unless in the next few weeks you suddenly can drink Carls milk, it's, yeah, we just to throw that precious, precious stuff away. Yeah. I'll sell it to a bodybuilder. Uh, last little forgotten about thing I wanted to share was, um, recently, uh, well both kids have been going through growth spurts.

Yeah. Um, but of course with Lola being our second child, um, we had stored away lots of clothes, uh, from our first born. We diligently kept a lot of them, the, the ones that were still in good condition and we're like, we'll keep all this ready for our second child. Yeah. So we've got big boxes up in the loft of all this stuff.

Um, of course what happens is I go up, I look through and I find loads of clothes that we kept that are now already too small. Yeah. I forgot to get down and it's now too late. Oh, we kept them off for like three years. They've been sat in our loft taking up space. Yeah, and I'm, I, I missed it for like a month.

No, she can't fit any of it. In your defense though, a lot of it's not the right season, so. Mm-hmm. It's not that useful anyway. A lot of it, but it is what it is. It is. It is parenting. That's what Ed is and we're just grateful we have her. Yeah,

right. Then, uh, keep, what am I gonna say? Keep fighting on trying to get a doctor's appointment for your kids. And let's jump into a conversation today all about speech development. Yeah. Um. From kind of first words through to the chatty little, almost 4-year-old we have now. Yeah, I feel like it's kind of applicable.

We've already said I'm, I'm very poor at this. I can barely speak English. Hate you barely put sentences together. My words I use are the wrongs all the time. Um, but over there we have our semi expert. Semi. I'm a not in kids development, but no. Um, so you are a linguist? I'm a linguist, yeah. So I speak multiple languages and that is my job.

What languages do you speak, Emma? I speak French, Spanish, and Italian. Thank you. Thank you for telling our little audience and English obviously, because that's what I'm speaking to now. Yes.

I dunno if that's gonna factor into any of our conversation or not, but I think it helped. Inform me how to teach some more languages maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Although I'll say, I think the way we teach language in this country is completely wrong. Okay. Well, we'll, we'll get onto that topic for a separate day.

Well, we'll get onto some of that maybe near the end of the episode. Yeah. When we're into like preschool stuff. True. Um, but we'll start as, as is the custom from the beginning. Yep. Um, around first words now, do you have any notes or record of when you think Lily's first words were? I know typically like.

The general trend is, you know, you begin with kind of babbling, kind of nine to 12 months-ish with kind of first words. I know her first word was Baba. 'cause it was your name. Yeah. It was not mama, you know, not that I'm bitter. Mm. And we've explained before, but just quick recap. Baba being the. Arabic, yes.

Arabic word for dadda. Um, not because we're Arabic, because at the time Lily's cousins Rover and their daddy's Arabic, and she heard that they were calling their dad Baba, so she was like, clearly. Mm-hmm. My dad is also a baba. Yeah, yeah. And now that is his name. I feel like it's a interesting conversation as well about how the influence of other kids on language as well, and that happens through all the stages, but Yeah, true.

It was interesting. So early on there was a big influence. From others. Yeah, true. About what she said. I personally, I think just the, the kind of the letter B is easier, was an easier word to enunciate than, well they say that's why like. B and D like Baba or Dad as normally said before, mama. Yeah. Because Ma is a difficult one.

Yeah. I remember we always had that joke, which I think is very common. Where at the very beginning you were desperate for her to say, mama, mom, mommy, mommy. Yes. Yeah. And anything. And uh, she would like for ages you'd go, bababa Baba. Baba, Baba. Yeah. And I. Me. And then of course within several months it completely switched.

And what does she just all the time, mommy, mama, mommy, mama. You are like, stop shouting my name. I'm like, you have a father right there, sat right next to you. Like every time. I'm like, don't you remember back in the early days, you were desperate for her to say your name? Yeah. And now it's all she'll shout.

Yeah. True. Around the house. Don't mind the ability to say it. It's more that she requires my attention when there's another person there who's perfectly capable of completing whatever task she needs. Mm-hmm. I can't remember what age she started talking at really though. Mm. That's all, it's all a kind of progression, isn't it?

Mm-hmm. On a spectrum. I, it was quite early because then I expected. Some of our friends when they had kids, their kids to talk earlier. Mm. And then I kind of was mildly insulting 'cause I was going, what can they say? And they'd go, nothing. And I go, oh yeah. I didn't mean to be mean. I just, I, because, because we, you know, when you have one child you assume everybody follows the stages.

Child follow. Yeah, definitely. Should we try and go through like how we try to help her with language? Yes. So very early on. I think mostly. Is it just like kind of singing and reading? Yeah. With a lot of singing and reading. Mm. Um, a lot of books because I find books are really good just. Throat. Any age at this point, just to point and go, this is something, this is a horse, this is a, so like when Lily couldn't quite talk, but she could point even to help her understanding and be like, where's the horsey?

And you'd point at the horsey and like, where's this? So it would show like she identified words and what they were and things. Um, this is typically at the age then where they, they understand a fair bit but can't talk. And that's often when. Some people and depending where you are, like will do some sign language.

Yes. Baby sign language. Uh, we, we didn't do that. We did not. Um, but the preschools, but she was at, well nursery, but she calls it preschool now 'cause she's a big girl. Yeah, yeah. Um, she was at did so she would come back and do signs and we wouldn't know what the meant. We were like, ah, she's doing some baby sign language for us.

We don't know what she's saying. So we like slowly learnt more. And things like what the sign language was 'cause you'd do it enough. Yeah. We've got nothing against baby sign language. Oh. She's just like, no, just we, we didn't have the time to do it, to be honest. You know, you sometimes pick and choose what things you wanna focus on as parents, what you can feasibly manage to do.

Uh, at this age we were also doing like early potty training as well, and just sign language is one of those things that we just decided I had to go by the wayside didn't, yeah, we didn't have capacity for um, oh, I was gonna say. And when she was really little, she would babble at you and we would just babble back.

So like, it's really good. I really love that pace. So just repeat the noises back to them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because it helps them like identify like at the minute, Lola. Yeah. Well Lola's getting towards this phase, isn't she? She is, but I like think she thinks she's talking. Yeah. So when she goes she, anyway else she like likes blowing raspberries.

Yeah. But you do that back and she keeps doing it, which is great. But it means then when we take her anywhere, she does it to everyone. We see her. You're right. I think she thinks that's how shes communicating, thinks that's how she communicates, because she can make a noise and people make it back, and she just communicate.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it is in a way, isn't it? It's, yeah. It just abuse her. She's like, I'm talking. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. On the topic of like singing and nursery rhymes. Mm-hmm. Um. I'm very poor at this. Oh, he's very poor. I know. So few nursery rhymes. But you know, the thing is I've sang a lot of them a lot of times.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like you should pick 'em up. Well, I know some of them, like I know, I know. The ones you sing, do you? Uh, I'm not. Okay. Okay. Here it is. I'm not like an. Or do audible or oral, oral, oral, oral learner. So like things that I hear I can attain. 'cause I wanted to point out that Lily, some of the songs she, she hasn't heard before, 'cause I've only learned them since Lola was born.

Like Lola's favorite song is I'm being Eaten by Boa Constrictor. Which sounds yeah, a bit dark. Well I was gonna bring this up. A lot of these nursery rhyme got like some pretty grim stories, but it's good because it like teaches you body parts. Like it goes, I'm being, whilst you're being a by a snake bow, a constrictor bow constricted.

At least you're not like a baby in a cot that's falling out the top of a tree. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's like, oh no, he is got my toe. And Lola finds are very funny. Lily now knows all the words off my heart. Mm. Does Baba know the words? Um, well, I've learned my body lies over the ocean. You haven't.

You sing it wrong. Oh. Oh dear. Just going downhill. Don't listen to her. She's making it up. Me, right? Because you always go the see the sea. You don't do the full. My body lies over the ocean. My body lies over the sea. My body lies over the oceans. Then bring my body to me. Oh no, you're right. I don't do that Then.

And then you go Bring back. Bring back. No, I just skipped that bit. No, you just go. My body lies over the ocean. Yeah. My body lies over the sea. The sea. My body lies over the, well, that's the, but I can remember. When you're singing it, when you're trying to get alone sleep, I think Lola must think this song's gone rather short compared to normal, to be fair.

At this age. Really, it's the like, the tone and the kind of, it is, you know, the hearing your voice rather than the words. Words it. As someone listening, it annoys me. Yeah. Um, oh dear. Anyway, going back to actually encouraging them to speak. Um, yeah, reading and singing, I suppose. On that note, we did. With Lily.

We've not done as much with Lola yet, but we did a lot of trips to the library where they have those, um, like singing and reading little groups. Yeah. For babies. I'm, I'm hoping to go tomorrow, uh, because, um, Mimi and Pap are gonna look after Lily tomorrow. Mm-hmm. So the hope is that we will manage to get to the library.

Mm-hmm. But yeah, that was good. So it's a good thing. Look at your local library. I always do singing little and story time, which is what Lily used to love. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I suppose as time progresses, I was thinking we should really just touch on the fact that, you know, it can be a time when parents get a bit like worried, I suppose.

Like a lot of developmental stuff. Oh yeah. You often compare yourself to others and then you're like, oh, they're not talking yet. They've not said a word. We do have two girls. Yep. So like. Our girls are very chatty. They kind of do talk very well. They picked up words quite early. Yes. Yeah. Um. And I think it definitely, I know people will argue, but it's definitely seems to be a girl boy split.

'cause most of the boys we know are slower to pick up speech. Most of the girls are quicker. Mm. Um, of course it's, it's a generalization and it's never gonna account for everyone, but it is like a trend that general stereotype. Yeah. So I have a lot of friends who are boy moms who get really worried because they would come and Lily would be chatting away and their boy wouldn't be.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I even have to go like, it seems normal this age, you know, where we are in the story. Like, you know, 10, 11 months where they're may be not actually saying words, but they're like, our girls will be babbling away. Like you say like yeah, they think they're talking, they're like trying to communicate.

Whereas some of the boys we know definitely would just sit and play and would make no effort to communicate. Yeah, true. Yeah. Um. Which is perfectly normal. Yeah. Yeah. Like I know for me, I didn't really do a lot of that stuff till I was two. Mm. Um, and do you wanna talk, I thought you could talk about you as well 'cause you had true, did you have speech therapy?

I did have speech therapy. Um, but we had a rather unique situation where if people dunno, I'm a multiverse, small quadruplet. Um, and there was a period of time we refused to speak English. Mm. We'd only speak. Whatever made up language, we'd acquired that. It was likes almost because it was baby Babel, but we learned what each other was saying and we were coming toddlers and mum was like, they're just not, they're not talking.

You were able to communicate in this babble language. All they're talking to each other, but not to me and not in English. No. And she said we'd find it Really, it must be so disconcerting. Well, she said, she said, it was like, it was weird that we would find it odd. She couldn't understand it because obviously to us, three of the children understand me perfectly well.

What I want. Yeah. And we'd just look at her like she was bizarre. And then she said, we'd say, you watch something and we'd all giggle hysterically. Like it was really funny. And she said it was like. I dunno what that is. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Um, so we were all actually quite delayed in our normal English speech.

Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. And we went to like speech therapy and stuff to try and get us Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the uh, thing. Yeah. Yeah. And certainly other members of the family and people we know have been to speech therapy as well. Yeah. It shouldn't really be any stigma with that. Also interesting. Most people I knew at university who studied languages.

Nearly all of us had been speech therapy. Oh, how fascinating. So I wonder if it's something like, I don't know, speech, speech, speech theory helped us learn languages later. Or maybe like it might be a sign your child maybe's gonna be into languages. Maybe like, I dunno what it is, but I thought it was really interesting.

Like when somebody said it, most of us in the class had all been speech therapy. And I was like, oh, interesting. Mm-hmm. But yeah, just like in those early days particularly, um, don't, don't panic. No. If your kid's not. You know, trying to communicate. Yeah. Don't, don't panic. Like No. You don't come across people really in life, do you?

That have never learned to talk. Yes. So there's like, I'm sorry, this didn't, people develop at different stages, so, you know. Yeah. They'll get there eventually. Yeah. Um. I'd say like, there's good hints. Just like, just keep talking to them. And overexplain. So my friend Rachel, um, she's a teacher. She teaches like language, English is a foreign language.

Well, you've got a lot of, uh, linguist friends, don't you? I do. And she was always talking about how there was like, um, a child who was like hard of hearing and the mum would just overexplain everything. Just everything In daily life she'll be like, oh, there's a car. We're waiting at the lights. This is what's gonna happen.

Yeah. And I find that I automatically kind of did that with, anyway. Yeah. We did that a lott chat away just going like, oh, this is what we're gonna do. And look, there's a, there's a cat and this is what the cat's doing. Yeah. I still say you need to leave space for responses, but when they can't really talk, I think it's just helpful for them to hear you talk.

Mm. And talk about objects and things. Just them to get used to it. This was one of the things, um, you often used to moan to me about as well, was that transition from when they're going from that kind of baby babble phase. Yes. Into. This kind of 1-year-old phase where Yeah, 'cause she started, you need to actually start talking to them.

Yeah. And so I would, yeah, she started like picking up on words and repeating them and Elliot would still be just babbling away. So I'd still be nonsense mimicking her nonsense words back to her. 'cause it is so cute. It's still cute. And don't ba go ba. The next stage. Now we just need to talk like normally.

And you'd be like. Elliot, you're making silly noises. Again, you've gotta out to use words and talk to her and I'm like, oh, I forgot. I forgot.

Cool. Um, does that take us on to then maybe, you know, um, one and a half-ish heading into learning some new words. I wonder. I can't really remember. Can you remember? Like, but I feel like. One of the words kids often learn fairly early on is No true. Yeah. And it's like, I feel like a milestone where like suddenly they're like talking back to you.

They're like, Nope. Yeah, I don't want to do that. Yeah. Lily's very funny at the minute. She always goes, no, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And quite a posh voice. I think she thinks, well, I'm being polite. I'm saying thank you. They can't be annoyed at it. Yeah. And I'm often like, the thank you doesn't, it doesn't negate the fact that it wasn't really a choice, was what I was giving you.

Mm. I was giving you an instruction. Um, it'd be helpful really if our English word for no was like a bit more complicated so they couldn't pick up on it so early on, like a longer word because it's just such a simple word to say. Yeah. And they can grasp its meaning so easily and they're like, oh, I can say this and I don't have to do it.

Yeah. But they can't also just shake their head like, yeah, Todds very good expressing they don't want to do something. It's true. Like, ugh. We could, this episode could expand into all sorts of communication, couldn't it? I mean, we're particularly focused on speech, but like communication covers, so like such a broader range of stuff.

Oh, it does, yeah. Like body language and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, and we learned a lot of that quite early. You know, if you go and listen to our episode on, um, like early potty training where we did elimination communication. 'cause that's all about that really picking up on like with your cues, non-verbal cues, how they're communicating.

Mm. So like, yeah. Interesting, interesting stuff. Um, one of the little notes I've got down here just to touch on it, I think probably comes at about this point is like when they have like. Got their own words for things. Oh yeah. So like they are using words and they're communicating with us about something, but like, it's not a word that everyone else uses.

Yeah. So for us, for instance, we always used to call nap time having a dodo Dodo. Yeah. People wouldn't know what that was. Well, of course, that's not really a common phrase, is it? But also Lily would say to other children, like Dodo. Yeah. Like they need a dodo. Yeah. Do you want a dodo now? Are you tired? Do you need a dodo?

And it's like we saw, um, Lily's little cousin, Sophie, um, and she's just about turned two. Mmm. Um, and she was, she goes, dodo. And that's bluey because it's do, do, do, do, do. Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Kirsten was really, I impressed. See, why don't you piece together the links, isn't it? It's like fun, isn't it? But you know, ki was impressed 'cause um, she was going, I wanna watch Dooo.

And I sat there like Dooo. Yeah. And I went. Bluey and because he is like, you got that? I said, well, I do watch a lot of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, but I, I was thinking like, what on Earth could do do be? And I was like, oh, like the song do, do, do, do, do. So is what's been interesting, hasn't it? Um, meeting up with, with Sophie really, um, recently is, is seeing right in that mid phase of that.

Talking where? Yeah. Well they just like, she can say words and like communicate, but it's all a little jumbled and like we can't understand it as well as Kirsty can. Yeah. 'cause as a parent you become, you are in tune to the way they say things. Yeah. Um, and as they listen to one in the past episodes, they see quite funny things like, um, at one point Lily was saying like, my sister Kirsty is a dog called Lexi.

Yeah. And if you hear in the past episode, we talk about how she used to always call her sexy. Yeah, and it would be like sexy Lexi is now the dog's name because Lily so often basically called the dog sexy. Yeah. Well it's just that mispronunciation of a lot of words at this age, isn't it? Yeah. Where like they really try, they often be very funny.

Yeah, it can be very funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it ends up being like a slightly rude word and bingo ended up as bimbo. Yeah. Yeah. It's bluey and Bibo. Bibo. It was like certain things like that that we'd find very amusing. Yeah. It is, it is sometimes a bit like an alien language, isn't it? Listening to a little like toddler and a 2-year-old kind of babble away.

Yeah. It's, it's so funny. It's like, you, you both look at each other and like, we've got no idea what she's saying. Mm mm On the flip side, that that sense of like, them getting so frustrated. Oh yeah. When they wanted to communicate something, they were saying something and you couldn't understand what word they were gonna say.

Yeah. Then he'd very frustrated. Yeah. And then she'd sit down and cry because she'd want you to understand the thing. Mm-hmm. Where it's so much easier nowadays because if she has pronounced it wrong, she's got so much more vocab that she can describe it. Yeah. So she doesn't get annoyed because she thinks, oh, how can I describe what it is?

And then she'll describe it and you go, oh, whatever the thing is, we've worked out what it is. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I just, I just remember so many times being sat there and like repeating the word back to her and she'd gets so annoyed and I'd be like, I don't, I really don't. I don't. And you like run through like 10 different words, like is it this?

And then you, then you get the other parent, you'd ring them up going, now what is this? Can you interpret for me please? And you'd really hope that they'd come across it before and go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. If they won't know, you're like, oh no.

Oh, the joys. Yeah. If you're going through that phase at the moment, like, yeah, it's tough. It's ups and downs, isn't it? It's like, like it's really fun, full of joy because learning to talk, but it's also challenge. Yeah. Difficult. Mm. A few other things I think probably happen around two, but maybe you can correct me if you think.

Mm-hmm. Um, my time scale's slightly off. Um, I was thinking it's kind of the age where. Um, you start spelling stuff out because they recognize words like for instance Oh yeah. Yeah. Like if we're trying to communicate with each other Yes. And say, ah, there's an ice cream van over there. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, if we say the word, the kid's gonna like latch onto that.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so yeah, a lot of spelling words out, we do, we do struggle with this. We do struggle again. It's smash me. Why is it always me? But this just being, I do have an excuse. He is dyslexic. I am dyslexic. So many, my spelling is very poor. So this goes both ways where Emma's trying to say something to me and spell it out and I'm sat there for literally like five minutes, like going through the letters.

He's gotta think about it really hard. And I'm like, ah, yeah. Got it, got it. It took me a while. Or the other way, I'm tried to spell it back to you and I can't spell it as when I look at him like I have no idea what that thing is he's trying to talk about. Yeah, no, no clue. I clarify ice cream. Not a problem with, no, not, but other examples of words existed where it has proved a challenge.

I can't remember one right now, but I remember you spelled it to me and I looked at you and I actually understood what it was and afterwards went, that's not spell that word, but I've got it. Yeah. Yeah. Or we like start talking in code. So like for ages you couldn't say granddad because you, at that point they have no concept of time.

Mm. So I think if you say a word that thing's gonna be there. Now thought he's gonna be here in a second. Yeah. So we you, we started calling him the G man. Yeah. Yeah. I think, again, we've mentioned this on a parenting achievement thing in the past before again. Uh, yeah. Sometimes G-Man or sometimes like Big G.

Yeah. Big G. Which again, you know, like we're in church circles, like in religious context when you're going around in a church building, talking about Big G. Yeah. You're talking about granddad. It was quite funny. Yeah. So little things like that where we, we either use different words. Mm. Or you try and spell it because they have too much understanding that point.

Yeah. Where it's dangerous. That feeds into my next point where I feel like it's this age where you suddenly become very hyper aware of all the external words going on that. Could, yes, have an So for example, you know, like swearing and things or like just being sensitive to what's being said around them, like was like, even, even not necessarily by us, but like in music or podcasts.

I was gonna say, a lot of it's music that I listen to and I was like listening to someone last night. Luckily, obviously Lola doesn't matter match right now. Too young at the moment. Um, but I was like, oh, I really need to start. Because I've just liked them all and I just have a liked list on Spotify I put on.

Mm-hmm. And I was like, I'm gonna start going through and being like, oh, any with swear words, I'm just gonna have to put in like a private list from when we're not with the kids. Yeah. Yeah. Because Lily also asks about a lot of words now. Yeah. She has that interest. So we come across words. She goes, what is it?

And I have to kind of describe its meaning. Mm. Which I also find I often do to Lily the other way around. So like if we come up with like, we came up. I came across the word clamber. Mm-hmm. You know, in the Rapunzel book. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, I do know, given I'm here you, it's the audience you need to explain it to.

So in our, we have a book about Rapunzel, um, and they clam up the tower. Mm-hmm. Um. So I was going, oh, what do you know the word clamber? And she went, yes. And I was like, what does it mean? And she had a big think about it and then was like, it's to do with a ladder. And I went, you're right. Yeah. You like clamber or a ladder?

Very good. Yeah. And I was like, it's kind of like climbing. And she goes, oh, okay. So now I do the opposite thing where I test her knowledge sometimes because I think our. She might not know this word in context. Mm. So I'll ask her if she knows what it means. Problem is Lily will always say she knows what it means.

Yeah. Yeah. We're getting ahead of ourselves a bit into like the older age group work. We'll come back to some of that, but yeah, it is, it is funny, isn't she? Sometimes she'll, uh, she'll know two variations of a word, but not realize that they mean the same thing. Yes. Um, but yeah, our ling English language is so.

It's a tough one. Yeah, it is. I feel like I should have an excuse for that 'cause it's just such a weird language. It is a weird language. Like yeah, it's not surprising kids because we've had so many languages mixed. Yeah. We have play odd rules about things like, and trying to remember for example, with, you know, like two year olds and, and three year olds that, uh, not to like, I dunno, like you want to teach them new words and vary up your, your vocabulary, but equally, sometimes I forget that she knows.

A certain word, or like at that point in time, she knew a certain word and I would then use a variation of, you know, a different synonym. Mm. And I'd be like, why is she not understanding me? Why is she not understanding what I'm, she knows what this is. And I was like, oh, it's because she's familiar with like the other synonym for it.

Yeah. Not the one I'm using. And I was like, oh, I'm sorry, Lily. I did, I forgot. Yeah. This, this word means the same thing. This is why you're confused.

Don't wake. The baby is brought to you in partnership with the Kairos Movement, which is, which is a project of the Methodist Church who have also given us money. I. To do the podcast. Hooray. Uh, what, what, what do we need to say, Emma? I don't know. This isn't my forte. Uh, why, why do you do this podcast, Emma?

'cause I enjoy it. Because it's fun. 'cause I wanna connect with other people. Yeah. That's it. And we're all about trying to build some community with, uh, parents. If you've got babies or toddlers, wherever you are, really you can connect in with us. Yeah. And um, if you don't have a village to support you in your parenting, we are that village.

Hopefully. Maybe. I don't know. That's the general idea. We can offer mutual support. We don't know most stuff. Basically if you want to help. Each other muddle through. We are the kings and queens of muddling through. To that end, it'd be great to to hear from you if you're listening to this. Um, don't just listen along, but do get involved, uh, with the community and engage with us.

If you have any relatable stories, do get in touch and let us know. We'd love to share them on the podcast. Um, our usual plea to yes, send, send us things, get involved in the conversation, and if any of this is relatable. Or if we just think we're weird, uh, just, uh, tell us. That'd be great. You can, uh, chat or message or comment or do any of those things on our social media.

Platy for mes, uh, find all those links and things in the description or the show notes.

Do you think? I'm trying to remember. Like I feel like it's probably a pretty big milestone, but um, is it around this point that like they can actually, you know, they're beginning to string sentences together. Yes. It's so lovely. Then when they can kind of like say little things to you, like the first time they're able to express like, I love you, or something back to you.

And I think also express it in mean it's different. Yeah. Like they're not mimicking it, but they're actually, she was smaller than that When she could say, I love you, like I dub do. Yeah. But. I don't know if she knew what it meant. Mm. She just knew we said it before her into bed. Whereas now when she says it, you're like, oh, she knows.

Like she has a full understanding of what love is and it's nice that she says it. Yeah. 'cause it actually means something. Not that it doesn't, but it doesn't really mean much before then because they don't know. Yeah. Yeah. This is where we're kind of heading into three year olds, where we transitioned into having like a chatty little girl.

And Yeah. I know again, it will probably be different maybe if you have boys and, I dunno, but like for us, our experience here is that Yeah. Like at this point could barely shut her up. Yeah. Yeah. So my, my sister said it's like a, um, crazy parrot. Mm. Like they just parro on all the time. Yeah. And they repeat things you say and yeah.

But it's cute. Even now, Lily repeats things I say like feels how much language she just copies of what I'm saying most of the time. Yeah, yeah. Like often not even mimicking it back to you, but the fact sometimes if she's playing a game by herself Mm. And you'll like see her repeat your expressions. Yeah.

You know, 'cause like for Lily as a little girl, she'll often play games of like putting her dolls to bed. Yeah. Or like, you know, just doing. Stuff with her little dolls and, and stuff like that. And she like, which likes playing mummy. Yeah. Or like at that age she, she used to love like discipline. Oh yeah. So she used to love telling her dolls off, being like, you've been naughty.

But then often I was like, we were not that we didn't discipline her very much. I know often she was a very strict parent. This is what was so funny. 'cause like she'd sometimes repeat our expressions, which was funny. But then she'd be like, so much stricter than us. Yeah. However, being I was quite worried at one point about having another child 'cause she was so strict with our BA baby.

She'd be going dodo now. Yes. You dodo. I'd be like, we do a whole bedroom term and I'm very soft. I sit with you. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was like, she is, it's gonna be a strict older sister. Mm-hmm. Um, look as she has mellowed since then. Yeah. So I feel like here now, like thinking about getting the educational side of how do you help develop language?

Again, you can probably talk more about this, but like. We've transitioned from the kind of the singing and the reading, although of course reading continues all the way through. Well, but yeah, I'm a very big advocate. You should always read to your children. Yeah. But like a lot of the ways we were like at this point, developing languages like in games.

Yeah. Yeah. And like doing a lot of stuff like that and just chatting with each other and, and we have a really good thing. That I've started doing, well, I say I've started doing, we've done it for about six months at least. Mm-hmm. Where I always do What is your favorite thing today? Yeah. To ask the question and then they can really think about it and tell you like what is your favorite thing?

Yeah. Yeah. Um. And it's also nice 'cause it's often something you really wouldn't expect. So it's nice to know what her favorite thing actually was. Yeah. And like book time, you know, at, at bedtime transitioned from just reading a book to like, she begin to want to like tell stories. Yeah. And like make up stories.

Yeah. Often we have the option, now we do three books, or I do what means me 'cause you know, I'm a big softie and then do two books and then we make up a story. Mm-hmm. Um, I'm sure Elliot does it a bit quicker because she's not as bust. Um, I've got a few like I was looking through back through like my videos of things 'cause it's always that thing where you want to try and catch them talking 'cause it's so cute.

Yeah. Like I'm always like with my phone and it's, that typical thing always happens. I like, I get my phone out. She immediately shuts up. Yeah. Or changes subject or like just like leaves the room and I'm like, ah, you were being so cute chatting away. You're saying such nice things. I wanted to video it. I wanted to capture it.

And yeah, I've got so few instances of these hilarious like little stories, but I have got a couple, I've got a couple of little. Recorded made up stories and conversations I wondered about. Now this is, we'll see if I cut this out later, but I might try and insert these in when I'm editing. Oh, put a few of them into the episode.

Yes. What do you reckon? That's a fun idea. Yeah, like for us, they're very fun. I have no idea if they're fun for other people to hear or if I think she says quite funny things. Generally self-indulgent. But um, you know, we can be self-indulgent. It's our podcast. Yeah. We can do what we like. Skip ahead if you don't like this.

I thought. The two odd share. I've got one where she's telling us at dinnertime a story about a frog. Oh yes. Uh, do you remember this one? It was about, that was from quite a long time ago. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I mean. Like that's why it comes in at this point, really in the conversation. Ah, yes.

You know, I think she, what age are we talking about this point? I think she must have been about three. She must have been three. Yeah, about three. Um, well, I mean, she's three now, but meaning like early spring, not, not, is she like four in a few weeks? Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, um, there's like, as always, there's huge, the development between when you've just turned an age.

Yeah. I always think it is. Sorry, I'm on a tangent now, but when you have that age thing, I'm always like, you know, you say, oh, my child's two. Well, if they've just turned two and they're almost about three, that gap is so like big. Oh yeah. Or the same with three, the same with four. What's I always do. Two.

What do you say? Two and a half? Mm. Then I go almost three. Almost three. Because I think to other parents it could worry them. Yeah. If you're like, oh yeah, my kid's two. Oh wow. Your kid's massive for two. Because I don't know what to say at the moment because yeah, I pretty much nearly always say she's almost four, but sometimes I just lie.

Tell people she's four. Yeah. Because she almost is because I feel bad saying she's three. 'cause I'm like, well. She's like, clearly developmentally, she's not a like just turned 3-year-old. Yeah. She's like almost, she's just about to start school. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, like, yeah. But anyway, um, so yeah. So there's a little story about a frog jumping on a bouncy castle, I think it is.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And you were asking her about what's going on with this frog? Yeah. And what color things were Yeah, the frog. The frog. What color dress did the frog wear? Um, outfit dress. Oh, an Elsa dress. Red. Red. And what did the reindeers wear? Well was two. The one was two. A pink one. A pink one. And what color was the toy?

Um, green. Oh, because it's a frog obviously. Was there about see Castle? Um, yeah. Who liked the bouncy castle best? Um, frog. Frog. 'cause he likes jumping frog. Four too behind me. Oh, he is too small to go on the Bry castle. I fall over. Yeah, he would fall over. So who, who went on the Bty castle? Did the reindeers go on it?

No one too big. Oh, they're too big. Who went on the Cy Castle? Was he very good? Did he do flips? Flip. And then we've also got a conversation with me that she had whilst cooking, that I did manage to record. Oh, bizarre conversation where she's telling me I'm not allowed to stir the beans 'cause she was helping me cook.

Oh, I'm not allowed to stir the beans because, um, I'm too old and I'm not brave. Oh dear. Who, who knows what, what this was about, but it was hilarious. And I did manage to get it on camera. Too old, this old me. She just says some funny things. Just some hilarious things. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just, I think often it's to justify what she wants to do.

Yeah, definitely. So she is like, I'll come up with a reason. Yeah. Why, uh, why people can't do that. Yeah. You stirring the beans. Can I stir them? No. You are old a kiss. I, I I go get, see Mama. I want help. You are mama to help. Yeah. What? Why am I old? Why does that stop me stirring the beans? Um, I'm, I kiss, I about cat it.

I can't touch it because I can't touch it. Oh, is that 'cause I'm not brave. It's, I'm not brave 'cause I'm not a big girl. I can say you are not a big girl. Oh, am I a big boy? Um, no. I I a big girl. Yeah, I know you're a big girl. Yeah, I just a I girl. Yeah, you're a girl. What am I? Am I a girl? No, you, you are a boy.

Yeah, you are boy, right? A kiss. I old. I'm, why am I old? A kiss. I. Because I'm not brave. I know. Excuse me. Why am I not brave? I can't say you that. Oh, that's why I can't stir the beans. No. And lemme have a dog first. No, I go, go with fabric. Okay. Oh, we're gonna shower it. Don't, don't touch the metal. 'cause it'll be hot.

Okay. Just be careful like that. Yeah, you can do that. Yeah. Yeah. Can I hold this? Um, no, not yet. No. Do you wanna hold that? I hold that, like that. Oh, is that how you do it? Yeah. Yeah. Like Claire do it. That's how Claire does it. Yeah. Do you do cooking at nursery? Yeah. Yeah. What do you cook at nursery? I.

You like cooking? What? Oh, that's nice. I need to help Mama. You need to help mama. Mm-hmm. Okay. Right. Well, it was a nice, nice chatting with you. And then on the more educational side, it was kind of, I think this age, like when she was three that we really began to focus on like. Um, dedicated time that we'd spend trying to learn about like colors, shapes, numbers, that type of thing.

Yeah. And we like do it in like very fun game ways. Yes. Yeah. But we really began to then like, oh, okay, let's try and focus some of the language and language. And I do like, I do messy trades, so the messy trades, all pink things, you know, the messy trades, all blue things. Yeah. And then I'd write the word, I mean, she can't read, but yeah.

To try and be like, oh, this is pink. Yeah. And this is a color. Yeah. Um, yeah. Unlike some of this is probably. It was quite early. It's not really necessary to do a lot of educational stuff this early. But yeah, we, you know, in terms of trying to encourage the language development. Yeah. Yeah, it was, it seemed to work pretty well.

It did. Again, we are not experts, but No, we're just telling you what we did and who knows. I feel guilty 'cause Lola already hasn't had the same, I know it's with the second chart, it's definitely not gonna be the same. Right. Already at this point I was taking Lily to the library regularly. Yeah. We were seeing stuff.

I was sat reading books to her all the time. Like Lola only gets read a book really at the moment when Lily's being read a book. That's true. 'cause at this age, we used to read her Lily all the time. Yeah. But I don't have the time to sit and read to her all the time. Oh, now you're making me feel guilty. I know we're not reading to her as much, but not, I was reading the other day and I thought, oh, she really likes this book.

We're reading with Lily. And I thought, yeah, poor kid. Because she never gets read to it. Oh, you're right. Oh, we really need to try and read more with her. We do. But it's hard, isn't it? We don't have time. Yeah. It's hard. Yeah. Yeah. This is when, you know, we have, we just hear us going into a depressive spin about how we, we have two, but I really don't, I don't know how you guys out there do it If you've got more than two kids.

Yeah. Like you've got three or more, or does your effort level just go down? Maybe? I dunno. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Lola. You listen to this one day, they can't make too much difference. 'cause people are, people are fine, aren't they? Yeah. But there is a reason the first born's normally the most intelligent. Oh, oh yeah.

Like I wanna say it doesn't, but studies have proven, I feel like there must be, that must be the reason First Born are generally more intelligent. Yeah. Is because you spend a lot more time doing things. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna move our conversation onto the present day then. Mm-hmm. So we've got an almost 4-year-old, um, and we are heading up to like, as we've already mentioned, the kind of starting school phase.

Mm. So there's probably a few things just to pick up around this age group as well. With language. Obviously we have like a chatty little friend now who we can have full on conversations with. It's nice. You can like take her out places and I'm a nice, like me and Lily went to the um. A ballet show. It was like Hansel and Gretel, but if anyone sees it, it's nothing like Hansel and Gretel.

Um, it has a rubbish monster that she loved. So it was like Northern Ballet. Was it something? Yeah, it was really good. It's like a thing for kids, but um, but it was nice because it's not like having an adult with you, but it's having someone who can do really nice conversations and you can have a nice time and you can talk about things and mm-hmm.

It's like having like, I don't know, sometimes it's like having a young teenager with you. They can like. Hold a conversation. Well, and you can have interesting conversations. This is when I feel like it should be like a, a meme like you, like tell me you're a girl mum, without telling me you're a girl mum.

Like you took Lily to the ballet. Yeah. And you sat and had a lovely conversation with her. We did like probably some of the boy mums listening are going, what on Earth is this? And we, and we went for like a. Little treat beforehand. And we had like went to a little Turkish cafe and we had like funny little pastry things and we were talking about, oh, isn't this nice?

And I was explaining like, oh well it's from a different country, which he now knows there's a place called Turkey, which he sounds very funny 'cause it's like the animal. Yeah. This, this is what I said like with words that have double meanings. I was having this challenge with a like literally yesterday where we saw a bird in the sky.

I was like, oh, that, that's a red kite. And she was going, no, daddy. No, it's not. It's that's, that's not a kite. I was like, oh yeah. Well, I know, I know. It's not like a kite, like your kite. I was like, but the bird is called a red kite. And she was like, no, no, it's a bird. No. I was like, okay. It's so silly. Okay.

No, we had this, um, I was telling, um, my sister the other day at Christmas, there's a card that said Noelle. Mm. And, uh, Lily kept saying, what does this say? And I said, no, L And she was going, no, there is an L at the end. And I remember, we, like, we spent, I feel like this could be like a fabulous joke to actually do auto card and it, I'm not kidding.

We took about 10 minutes till I finally decided, I went, oh, it says Christmas. I just lied to her. And she went, oh, okay. It's true. She, she can't really read yet. Like, we're clearly not getting forward with the Noelle thing. Yeah. And I kept being like, well, it means Christmas in the language. No, tael. I was like, I don't, I dunno how we can keep having this conversation.

So then I went, oh, it says, says Christmas. Yeah. And she went, oh, okay. Yeah. And then she was happy. Great. And I thought, why did I bother going through that torturous period of saying Noel? Yeah. Just. She's a bit pedantic now. She is. And what that means is actually, you know, the kind of the sad phase we are losing is we some of the cute expressions, you know?

Yes. She's actually developed out of them. So like the funny things toddlers sometimes say, because they don't know how to pronounce the word or like, you know, and we find really cute, but like she's grown out of a lot of that. Yeah. Where she's very pedantic and she's like, no, this is how it's said. Yeah.

Say it properly. I'm like, oh. But it was so cute when you used to say it like this. True. Oh, but she still has some odd like pronunciation. Oh yeah, definitely. It's gonna be fascinating. We, we've said this for a while. Obviously the area you are like grow up in and are raised will have a big impact, like the external impact.

But for us, one of us is northern and one of us is Southern. And yeah, we do pronounce words differently. It'll be interesting to see what Lily does with it. Like I, at the minute, she often just says both. Yeah. Um, although it is funny, if you go, do you say it like mommy or daddy? She'll always say, she says it like mommy.

'cause she likes the idea that she says it like Mommy, she wants to say it like you. Yeah. But I always find in, in practice, she just alternates. Well, she was feeling we went to the doctor. Mm-hmm. Um, so Lola got her jabs. Yeah. Her final ones. Have you heard about that story? It's a mess. Anyway, separate conversation.

Yeah. And he was saying to the woman, oh, can we have a plaster afterwards for her thing? Yeah. And the woman said, of course, but the woman called it a plaster. Oh, and Lily, we went to a, no, that's not how you say it. That's what we did. Quite pedantic, going around, correcting people. But she, it was funny though, 'cause Lily kind of let us say it about three times, and I think the third time Lily was like, I can't let this go on.

I'm not standing anymore. I'm gonna have to tell her. And the woman found it really fully, thankfully. And she was like, oh, is that not how you set? And she's like, no, it's pla. Yeah. And I was like, I'm so sorry. Yeah, yeah. Um, but no, she found it funny. Lib. Um, I suppose also then that's kind of similar to like, not something we have particularly, but like we've got friends and things that are either, uh, in Wales and there's like multiple languages, or we've got lots of friends and family who have bilingual partners or, you know, family with multiple languages in the family.

So like really interesting, like, not something we can really get into here, but like. Uh, part of the speech development conversation about, you know, if, if you have multiple languages, what that looks like. Yeah, true. Uh, really interesting. I suppose that's more your area being someone who does speak multiple languages.

Yeah, but I didn't learn in a bilingual household. I've learned true. I, it would be much nicer if you could learn a bilingual household 'cause it'd be quicker. At this point is when you start having to be careful what you say around your child. In what way? Because Lily will repeat things to other people.

Oh, so not necessarily like beyond just the mimicking of like swear words and things that you need to be very careful of. Yes, but actually like whole concepts and conversations, like she gleans information quite a lot. Yeah. Which means if you want a good gossip about someone Yeah, you can't, you can't. So you can no longer just like talk over their heads about situations and things going on that Yeah.

That for us, we're like, well, this is just a private conversation in our house. Yes. But Lily will hear it and we might not realize she's heard it or understood. And then go and tell other people. Yeah. Tell everyone at preschool probably. I mean, we have, we've mentioned this, um, in some of our episodes about pregnancy, haven't we?

Yes. 'cause this was. The main driving factor. Why we didn't tell Lily for ages Yes. That we were expecting another baby. 'cause she's not good at keeping a secret. We didn't tell Lily the name. Yeah. Um, because again, we knew she would just go and gossip and tell everyone she would. Yeah. Yeah. She's, she's not one to keep a secret.

Yeah. Equally though, um, we've not met everyone at nursery or you know, the parents, but we know a lot about what's going on. In a lot of her friends' family's lives. Oh, yes. Because they all gossip together at preschool, and they come home and tell us. It's like Liddy goes, oh yeah, so and so's mommy children doesn't work so and so's mommy does work.

So and so's got a baby. So and so's gonna have a baby. I'm like, really? You've got all the gossip? Yes. I'm like, I wonder what she's telling other people. What do other people know about us? I think she definitely says I don't work. Yeah. Because obviously, and we lower them in it and I don't. Like while I'm on maternity, so it's very, I I remember saying I work and she went, not anymore.

And I was like, well, yeah, well we will work again. Yeah. And she was going, no. Okay. Flip side of this conversation though, also the age where. Kids start to lie. True. So like we don't have an awful lot of this, but we've definitely had situations where she's gone into preschool and told them things and they've come and questioned us and we're like, that is just not true.

Yeah, no. So at one point she told everybody that the baby would also be called Lily, which I mean they, they knew it wouldn't be, but they found it very funny. Yeah. She also told them at one point the baby had been born, a baby had come out yesterday. Um, and once again it was called Lily. Yeah. So thing, and I remember they saw me and I clearly looked very pregnant, and they were like, so you haven't had the baby yet?

I was like, yeah, no. Yeah, this could be our, this could be a whole other conversation. We kind of veered off a little bit from the actual speech development. But yeah, maybe we'll cover it again another time. Last little bit to cover then. Um, I really do want us to touch a little bit on, as we approach school, uh, some of the stuff with how our education system approaches teaching language.

Mm-hmm. Um. 'cause already, like we know that like phonics is coming up and that that will be a big focus. Yeah. And I don't hate it. I just feel like we teach children that a rule's true and it's not. Mm. So we're like, oh, that's the rule for all words. And I'm like, it's not the rule for all words. Yeah. I mean, I don't have any expertise in this, you know, I can't talk about it like you can, but I can from experience, say like in the past three or four months, I have been making an effort here and there.

To, to do phonics with Lily in preparation for school and just, you know, in her development. But so often I go to try and do it and I'm like, ah, that word doesn't fit that rule. Um, that doesn't work. Yeah. This word that doesn't sound like that, even in her own name, like the Ya in Lily, like Lily is pronounced, is different.

Yes. Because at the start of a thing, it's y like yes. Yeah. And the N, it's like E. And that's the phonic, isn't it? You we, it's like when we talk about the letter it, the letter Y, they should teach you, like eventually with advanced products, they should teach you that. It changes. Right. Like so. And that's the problem, isn't it?

Well, listen, yeah. They kind of teach you like, oh, this is the phonic and that's how it's gonna sound in all words. Mm-hmm. And it's like, well, it is not though. Well this is, this is, I'm just a big advocate for reading. 'cause I think the more words children come across mm-hmm. The more they learn generally how they're pronounced and then yeah, they can learn phonics and it can be a help.

But it means they're not relying solely on one way of understanding words. I mean, they will have experience other ones. I mean it one, it's one way to teach language, isn't it? Yeah. And you know, maybe it's the best way. I dunno. Like May, maybe it is, but it is just, I feel like it's one option. Variety helps.

Yeah. So one way doesn't work. You've got another thing to fall back on. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we're gonna fall out with school over this. Maybe I feel like she's got under good enough grounding to probably what I need. Well, that's true. That would help. True. But I feel sorry for like little kids if they are struggling with phonics and schools are being really pedantic about the fact for them to need to learn.

I remember as me as a dyslexic little kid, I really struggled with phonics. Mm-hmm. Like up until like quite a late age and they were like. But you need to know this. And I was like, why? I can talk. We're veering off into like the education stuff now, which you can listen to all of our Moy thoughts about in our episode on flexi schooling.

Um, so yeah, just go, go scroll back a bit and you can find our episode where we talk all about that guys can't see what, she's desperately trying to get this much Lola's desperately trying to grab the microphone. So we're gonna have to close things up. Do you wanna say anything? No. Hi Lola. How you doing?

Do you have any thoughts about language in school? You. You can't say anything yet other than blow raspberries at people throw raspberries. Would you like to blow raspberry for the podcast listeners? You go.

She's looking at me like I'm not a performing monkey. Yes, there we are. Um, don't grab it. Daddy says it'll make a loud noise, not for you, but on the podcast, yes, you won't hear it, but on the podcast they'll hear little, little noises. He has touched it.

Well, thank you for joining us in the Blanket Fort today for joining the Crippin on chatting about our talking. Chatting about chat chat, chatting about chat, chatting about the chatting chat, and we'll be back next time to talk about a new topic. Yeah. Bye. Go have a dodo. Enjoy your time with your kids before we, another episode.

Once again, stop. Farting isn't me, Lola. Excuse me, mama, what do you think you are doing over there? God bless. Sleep well.