TY_RKS

Raghu played hang man with me today. (fyi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangman_(game))
He’s played it before with me. I’ve written out simple words like T_ _ _ R and given him a clue that its a wild animal. Whereupon he loves to pick the wrong letters so I have to start drawing the man hanging from the noose.

But today…. he spelled a word out in dashes! He asked me to guess it.
It went like this: _ _ _ _ _ _ He wanted me to spell it like this: TY_RKS. In case you have not guessed… its T-Rex (acronym for Tyrannosaurus Rex). It was a case of interesting, creative spelling and quite phonetic of him.

God/School Almighty!! What if he never learns to spell? Why not correct his spelling at every step of the way ( even though he seems so newly proud of his spelling skills)? Invented spelling must be squashed as quickly as it germinates.

Man…. am i glad i read about invented spelling on Sandra’s and other RU lists/sites etc. I loved being able to calmly watch his creative power, concentration, and sheer joy at being able to create a hang-man when i was unable to spell T-Rex the way he did. He beat me at my adults-rule-game.

To look at it as a happy game, a point of departure, a spurt of phonetic recognition is more important to me than turning it into a teacherly/schooly moment.