3 Toucans

Tracey Ann has a book called something like The Watering Hole (that may or may not be the exact title.  Its a story about different quantities of animals meeting at the watering hole and the book counts from 1-10.  

The pictures of the animals are gorgeous even though not all the animals 1-10 live in the same climates to meet at the same watering hole.  Anyway, the incompatibility of fauna is not my main issue with the book... but instead, that the book lists 3 Toucans.

My 3 year old really likes this book, and she's heard it enough times that, coupled with the pictures and her, albeit, unsteady counting abilities, she likes to read the book independently.  She does very well except for those confounded 3 Toucans.

Why couldn't they have listed 2 Toucans?  The words sound alike and sort of go together.  But no... the books reads, "2 Tigers (turn the page) 3 Toucans."  My precious little girl consistently reads, "2 Tigers (turn the page) 2 Threecans," and, frankly, I can't blame her.

The book also prints the numbers and the animals exactly like that, 3 Toucans... so, she isn't even given the chance to observe that Three Toucans actually has different letters in place than Two Toucans would.

As I type all of this, as an educator, I really don't like the way the book is written... it doesn't set a child up for success with numbers or animals.  But, as a mother, it hits me that soon my little girl will read the book correctly, and while I will be so proud of her, it will tug at my heart strings to hear her successfully read, "3 Toucans" instead of the adorable and honest, "2 Threecans."