Nancy, the main character, loves to be fancy...of course! She is engulfed in a family that is pretty plain but she doesn't let that make her who she is. She stands out as the eccentric, fashionable, frilly-loving member of her family. That is Drea. She could live in a dress or skirt but we force her to wear pants in the winter at least under those dresses (we're awful, I know!) She doesn't necessarily take it as far as Nancy but if she could I think she would. I love that this character encourages Drea to be who she wants to be even if its not always the same as the rest of us. So...uniqueness (that's fancy for one of a kind) is one of the reasons I love Fancy Nancy and what Drea is learning from it.
The other reason I love Fancy Nancy books....vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary! The words that Drea 's learning are amazing me. In the books, Nancy uses a more advanced vocabulary and tells the reader the meaning of each word. Of course, they do it in a way that makes kids like Drea excited to learn them just by calling them fancy words. I quiz Drea on these words often and she usually remembers what most of them mean and uses some of them in her everyday speech now. Fancy Nancy also has me thinking. The concept of the books has made me stop trying to use words that I'm sure Drea would understand and instead use the words I would normally use. I make sure to tell her what the word is fancy for (I know horrible english.) I think she actually hears what I'm telling her because I'm relating it to the way she learns it from Nancy. Oh that Nancy, she's the best! She's teaching me stuff too!
PS. I think Drea likes her because "Nancy" is her Nunnie's name, too.
Example of My Fancy Nancy:
These aren't great pictures but this is after Drea received her Sketchers Twinkle Toes from Nunnie for her birthday that apparently she wanted really bad. They are sparkly if you can't tell. Super sparkly and they light up. I have never really been a fan of light-up shoes but she thinks they are the best thing she owns. As you can see she had to add her super ruffle skirt on with these to feel extra fancy for her birthday dinner. These are pictures of her dancing around in them in sheer excitement!
Just a side note to this blog...when talking about books I wanted to add this note about Drea and reading. (Note: This is not to brag but rather to document so we can remember one day when she asks us what she could do at certain stages in her life.) Below are pages out of a book that was sent home with her from daycare for her homework one night. She can read this book and only needed help sounding out a few of the words. Andy and I have her read for us sometimes but we have to admit that we were blown away by her ability to read this book. Amazed! We have also been astounded by watching the change in her from noticing letters all around her to reading words all around her. She really tries to read everything. This change excites me! Watching a person go from not reading to seeing letters put together to form words in cool.
3 comments:
Music to a Speech Language Pathologist's ears! I used these books in speech therapy a lot for that reason too--vocabulary. We do get complacent about using the same words for our kids all the time---its awesome that you are being purposeful in using different words for her. PS I Heart Fancy Nancy too. She reminds me of me growing up. I was the Fancy Nancy of my household. Now I've passed the torch to Emma!
I really like Fancy Nancy too. We have a few girls who are often very fancy. I swear Emma changes costumes and names more times than I can count in a day. Maybe we need to have a Fancy Nancy tea and get all our Fancy girls together sometime!
We love how Fancy Drea looks in her skirt and new tennis shoes. But what made us laugh was seeing Charlotte riding Jersey.
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