Jillian and I spend a great deal of time talking about animals and the sounds they make. We point them on in books and as we walk around the neighborhood, and we are getting really good at barking, meowing, and such.
Right now, I am serving her dinner: chicken, carrots, and cheese. She holds up a piece of cheese and says “cheese!” I confirm. She… throws carrots on the floor and I say “carrots. Do not throw them.” She holds up a piece of chicken and says “whut dat?”
I say “chicken.” She answers “bok bok!”
Hmmmmm.
I wonder if she connects the chicken (bok bok!) that she’s “eating” with the chicken in her bedtime book who takes a bath, brushes his teeth, and wears pajamas. And if a connection is made, I wonder what she thinks of all this.
With cows and pigs and sheep, this isn’t going to be a problem. But with chicken… we’ll see if she figures it out.
We’ve been discussing this issue lately too. We’ve decided, to avoid confusion, to just call any meat just that, “meat”. I tried with the chicken and fish thing, but she would make the animal noises, just like Jillian. Meat seems to summarise it all quite nicely.