Tales of Life with a Girl on the Go

Reid’s new favourite song is “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” She can sing all of the words, or at least the words that make up her normal grammatical repertoire – the prepositions and articles are mostly  missing – but she certainly has the tune and the message down. One of the little girls at Kindermusik requested it a few times during the “favourites” portion of the class and it has caught on for Reid. It’s such a great song when you think about it, there is:
* counting on your fingers;
* jumping to be done with the singing;
* calling from the best telephone of all, your thumb and pinky extended;
* finger wagging – that know-it-all doctor who has probably never spent time caring for five little monkeys;
* danger – heads are being bumped; and
* rule-breaking – at the heart of it, you can live vicariously through those naughty monkeys.

Of course, Reid has been, on occasion, known to jump on the bed to better understand the motivations of the monkeys she is singing about. I think that is called “method acting” – many of Hollywood’s greatest follow this technique. I *think* Reid had tried jumping on the bed before she learned the song but since the jumping is now accompanied by singing, I know for sure she is doing it.

Reid’s fingers cause her some grief during the song, though. We start by holding up the appropriate number of fingers. Five is easy and so is four, though Reid always conducts a visual inspection to be sure the right number of digits are raised. Three, though, starts the challenge. I hold out my thumb and the two closest fingers in accordance with American Sign Language. Reid stares at me a bit but instead forms a sort of “ok” sign as she stares intently at her fingers, willing them to comply. Two requires a great deal of concentration and involves Reid’s pinky sticking out at an unusual angle and her ring finger standing up in a tentative way. For one, Reid triumphantly holds out her pinky or  her index finger.

As you can imagine, Reid waggles her finger enthusiastically while giving voice to the doctor’s words.  There is no hesitation to her finger selection for that part.

Have a great day and remember, no jumping on the bed.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 1:26 am and is filed under Language skills, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.