Phrenetic phonetics

i'm not one of those "courtesy laugh"er's its just not my gig. I actually find it somewhat droll in and of itself...so, i don't. I suppose that's not to say that i NEVER do, on occasion i'll catch myself doing it and roll my eyes at myself. Be that as it is, simple honest comedy usually accomplishes the intention with me.

Take for instance this morning during school. I'm working with The Drama Princess on the spelling of 'goat'. She had originally spelled it 'g-o-t', which, phonetically is obviously correct. Regardless, she identified the problem quickly, and realized she had spelled 'got' not 'goat'. The ensuing discussion was on how to get the 'o' to make the long sound and not the short sound with vowel blends and what have you.

Now, let it be noted that she understands the concept of long and short sounds, but hasn't quite yet mastered the terminology of "long and short" and frequently swaps definitions.

So she re-wrote the word....'GoT'

Thus earning a quizzical look from me, "What did you write?"

"Goat" [i'm spelling this correctly for pronunciation purposes]

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, look...GOAT"

Earning an even deeper furrowed quizzical stare...

"But...(pause...intent look at the word) Dad...i made the 'o' short for the short sound... see!"

Sure enough she had made that 'o' just slightly shorter than the middle dotted line permits.

I broke. She broke (although i'm certain she didn't know why).

Its those lighter moments that make homeschooling so dadgummed fun.