A Story

Hey look: a new post, with actual words, and not on a Sunday!

Okay, this evening I was teaching my smallest student. She's about 4 1/2. We were working on making words out of syllables. I would give her the word broken into syllables, and she would say the word. For example, I would say "bas-ket" and she would say "basket!" She was always very happy when she got the word.

And then we tried hap-pi-ness.

She left off the first syllable.

At first I thought I misheard, since I was teaching 2 other students and was a bit distracted, so I turned back to her and tried again, emphasizing the first syllable: hap-pi-ness.

She again left of the first syllable.

Her eyes were very big when she said it. At the same time she giggled a bit and then shook her head and said "no" very softly. We were not supposed to be saying that word.

I finally had to change what I was saying to "happy-ness" so she could get it.

I'm glad she speaks very quietly so the two grade 3 boys at the table didn't hear her.

I really hope she doesn't tell her parents about this.