Story for now. Updates later.
The Blend Chant
Kairi is learning phonics. It's one of the reasons I picked out her specific school. They learn phonics early and will be reading on a first grade level by the end of the year. The first sounds they learned were the vowels. Now they're learning consonants. One of the first letters they learned was the letter t. They then attach the vowel sound to each consonant as a blend. So when they learned the letter t the blends were ta, te, ti, to, tu.
Last week I was waiting to pick Kairi up in the hall outside her classroom. They were walking through the classroom across the hall to enter their classroom when I heard it. Kairi's voice came strong and loud as she chanted out with a clear beat the t blend sounds. Every now and then the boy behind her would join in, but with or without help Kairi was chanting her blends.
Her lead teacher, Ms. Jennifer, entered the hall first to lead the way into their classroom. She stood in the hall watching her children go into the room. Kairi was at the back of the line. Her co-teacher, Ms. Christie, was at the end of the line. As Ms. Christie walked into the hall she didn't see me. Instead she looked directly at Ms. Jennifer and said "She's been doing this alllllllllllllllllllllllll day."
At that moment Ms. Jennifer looked at me and smiled and simply said "I know." I shook my head and said "Sorry about that. Sounds like my daughter. At least you know that she knows her blends!" Ms. Christie looked thoroughly embarrassed to be caught semi-complaining about my daughter. What she doesn't realize is that I fully sympathize. I understand how annoying that could be. And deep down inside, in a place I'd never admit to her face, I'm just thankful that I don't have to be the one that hears it all day. ;)
