Too many toes

Phoebe likes to offer an example of every word she reads out of context during her reading lesson. This goes entirely off the script of the reading lesson program we use...but I'm not really one for scripted learning...so that's okay. It's probably my fault she does this anyway because I like to know that she understands what she just read. 

Sometimes she'll sound out a word incorrectly...so I'll ask if it's even a word. Often it isn't. (And if she's reading a word in context, I will ask if the word she just said makes sense there).

Like "smill." 

Smill...like what? What does that mean?

Smill isn't a word.

So we're not going to say "ih" there. What else could that /i/ say? And what is that /e/ doing at the end of the word?

Well, the e is a "magic e" (again, that is off script, but we watched some little videos about "magic e," one to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man" because little ditties like that help kids (and grown ups) remember stuff) so it's going to make the /i/ say its name. 

"Smile. Like, I smile when I'm happy." 

She'll offer an example like that for every single word she reads. And it takes forever and sometimes drives me crazy because I want to get through the lesson faster. But...that's okay. 

She struggled with "nine" today. 

Even though we talked about how all the words in the list have a magic e, so if you say the names of the letters it will help you read the word. 

"N-I-N-E," she said carefully. "Ninn."

"Ninn...like...what?" I asked.

"Like...I don't know."

"Is ninn a word?"

"I...don't think so."

"I don't think so, either. So this word can't be ninn. Think about what you know about this word."

I had to emphasize the last part because on one of the earlier words she stumbled over I asked her to think about what she knew and she scrunched up her eyes and rubbed her temples and said, "Okay...I know Rosie had her baby..."

I was like, "That...is not what I meant..."

So I asked her to think about what she knew about this word. 

She finally spat out, "NINE! Like, it's nine o'clock in the morning!"

"That's right!" I said. "NINE! Like nine o'clock in the morning."

"Or," Alexander chimed in (he was folding some clean napkins and towels nearby), "Like, you have nine plus one toes."

"Ew!" Phoebe said. "You do not! That would be way too many toes!"

"Well, he's right," I said. "That's how many toes you have."

"I just don't think so!" Phoebe said, aghast. "That's too many toes!"

"Count 'em up, sister!"

So...that's why we were counting our toes in the middle of today's reading lesson.