Writing 101

Drew has begun writing letters. No, not the kind you'd send to grandma in Connecticut, but the kind you'd write to spell your name! And I couldn't be more excited or more proud. Last week he was playing with chalk on the side walk and made the following: D, M, W, O, Q and T. I can only assume this is from the wonderful influence of school (although it also probably developmentally appropriate and this random letter-writing may have occurred regardless) ~ making me love pre-school even more. He can't quite spell his name, but he's half-way there.

The steps of reading & writing according to Drew:
1. Recognize all capital letters and most lower case letters
2. Learn how to pronounce every letter
3. Learn words beginning with each letter
4. Recognize letters by sounding out words slowly
5. Begin writing letters

This is preceeding reading of course. I'm curious to track the development...what is leading to reading and writing. It's quite interesting to me! I bet this is pretty typical, but if not, please share your stories with me!