Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Spyghmomanometer & Sternocleidomastoid

Our family story about learning how to spell.    

When Little Larry was in the second grade we were going over his weekly spelling words.  We had gotten to that word which was the month of December.   We made up flash cards each week and he would go though them and practice and later we of course would take turns working with Larry.  


Midway through the week Larry asked me in such an inquisitive way, "Mom, why do we have a bonus word?"  My explanation was something to like, "well son it gives you a chance to earn extra points on a harder word....."  he proceeds to say, "well, it should be much harder words if you ask me."  His dad and I both just laughed out loud and he then says, "Did you have bonus words in college?"  I don't remember telling him I had "bonus" words but spelling came easy to me.  I do however, remember telling him that two of the words I had to learn were not spelled the way I thought they should be.  I then wrote the words down on one of the flashcards.  He asked what they meant and I showed him in one of my books.  

Friday comes around and I get a note on his spelling test that is folded in half.  I look at him and say, do you know what this is?  He replied, "yes' and it's not right Mom."   As I read down 1-10 each spelling word is correct.  I then notice the bonus word is NOT December.  In it's place he has written down and spelled correctly Spyghmomanometer and sternocleidomastoid along with a short definition of each.  The teacher has written beside it, Larry these are great words but not your bonus word.  When I asked him to explain what he did his reply was, "I thought if I used your big words I would get more bonus points!" 


 You gotta hand it to him as a second grader for getting these right but as I told him, he has to follow directions.    


  

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