How you say...

Some of my kids are learning to read.
Which is actually a lot of fun for me.

Last week, Will was going around the room looking at words and saying for example, "What does L-U-N-C-H spell?" I'd give him the word, he'd move on. "What does E-X-I-T spell?"

We read grade, quiet, line up, responsible, respectful, wet floor, staff lounge.
He was having a great time with it, going back around the room and repeating most of them correctly. One good way to learn to read. And hey, no pressure.

He stumped me with N-E-P-O, though. I had him repeat it, thinking I'd heard him incorrectly. He spelled it again. I looked up from my attendance sheets that I (still) need to turn in.

"Where are you getting that word, Will?"

"From the cash register!" he said. "See?"
And he pointed to the little button that said OPEN.

"Oh! Buddy, you spelled that one backwards."

He looked thoughtful.
"How do you know?" he asked me, bringing our little toy cash register to me.

"Well, you read the letters to me from the bottom up," I told him, pointing to them. "The word starts at the top, see?"
Then I touched each one in the proper order.
"It's O-P-E-N. That spells open." I pressed the button, the register dinged and the drawer popped open.

Will carried it back toward the other table reading the button. "O-P-E-N," he said. Then giggled. "N-E-P-O." He turned back to me. "What would that spell if it was a word?" he asked.

Colin looked up from the comic book he was drawing.
"Nepo," he said, "But that's not really a word."

Then Will chanted, "Nepo. Nepo. Nepo." in time with his feet as he finished stomping back to the table.

He sat down, muttering "Nepo." under his breath.

Then Alex, who loves everything LEGO was reading one of the books I bought through a local FB group recently. I met a lady in the parking lot of the local Freddy's and gave her 30 bucks for her son's outgrown collection of LEGO and other boy-type cool books.

Alex was looking at a LEGO Ninjago book. He said, "I know this word."
And instead of the proper pronunciation, Nin-JAH-go, he said it Ninja GO.

I didn't say anything, but two of the other kids told him the right way to say it. He was super disappointed, because his way, "Makes a lot more sense, you guys."

He's a little further down the road to reading than Will, but they hung out a bit, reading the LEGO book together, then moving on to a Ripley's Believe it or Not book.

They were exclaiming over the odd tattoos, the tall people, the weird animals (two headed snakes!!) and interesting inventions. Those books are always fascinating to kids, so many different things in them.

Some of the other kids caught the enthusiasm and within about five minutes the other four kids had joined Will and Alex at the table and were all taking turns pointing things out, laughing, discussing and enjoying the book together.

Incidents like that are why stocking the book cart with interesting stuff has been a priority since I started there. Of course it would have been completely stocked the day I walked in had I taken the books from my old school. I paid for them, so they were technically mine. But I can't imagine how sad the kids would have been if I took all of the ones I'd purchased when I left my old school.

I'm once again glad to be where I am, doing what I do.