Cvn U r33d thi$?
One afternoon while I was working, Dad put the boys at the home schooling table, laid out blank paper, and passed out crayons. Taylor was not allowed to use the crayons because she is known to graffiti our walls. Kyle scribbled a lot, drew Mr. Potato Head’s yellow, crazy smile, and generally had a fun few hours. Ty colored rainbows, drew the solar system (in correct order and color), and drew pretty good portraits of Mr. Potato Head and various dinosaurs.
When I came home, I was very much impressed by the artwork. Most of the time, when we do art in Greenleaf School, the two younger ones scribble on the paper (and table) while Ty draws five or six renditions of the solar system. This time, they had a dozen unique drawings. One was a perfect dinosaur which Ty had labeled: Stikcores.
The “kcores” was on top of the “Sti.” So I read aloud, “K. Cores. Sti.” I looked at Ty. He was scowling. I looked down to the paper, which had a wonderful, black Stegosaurus on it. “Oh, yea! Ty, you wrote ‘Stegosaurus!’” He smiled. “Great. That looks exactly like a Stegosaurus. Good Job, Ty.” He was proud of himself.
During the weekend, I read about “inventive spelling” and how it is being accepted by Kindergarten teachers today. The theory is that early English spellers will progress from what looks like gibberish (id est, “O M F G” will be read aloud by the child as, “I watched TV all day.”) to correct spelling by the end of third grade. Ty is right in the middle of this progress with literal phonetic spelling.
I’m so happy that I found a label for my son. To celebrate my new discovery, I wrote down the names of his ten favorite dinosaurs (including Stegosaurus) and told him to copy my writing, disguising it as handwriting work. Perhaps that will reinforce the memorization of the suffix -saurus. While I love and support creativity, I do believe that flaws should be corrected and that everyone should be reaching for the dictionary. Yes, even when IMing and txt’ing.
