Dear Lindsey,
I was just remembering a funny story I HAD to share for the laugh of it!!
Conversation with Casey, age 6:
“Casey, can you spell, ‘cow’?”
“Yes. C-O-W.”
“Can you spell ‘house’?”
“Yes, H-O-U-S-E…I can even spell ejaculate.”
“umm. What?”
“I can spell ejaculate…E-J-A-C-U-…”
“Casey, where did you hear that word?!”
“I read it ALL the time in ALL my books.”
“Do you know what it means?”
“Yes. It means that you get so excited you just explode.”
“Really? I don’t think that is in my books.”
Apparently that was the conversation that occurred between my then 6-yr-old and the teacher at the Christian home school spelling bee practice. Fortunately, that teacher was my good friend, Laurie Woodward, who could barely contain the laughter as she recited the conversation to me later.
For the purpose of clearing his name, and showing that he at his young age had a better vocabulary than I: A few days later, Casey’s baby sister tore apart one of his schoolbooks that had been printed and stored in a 3-ring binder. Putting the pages back into the binder was laborious, because the book had been written before pages had numbers. I skimmed each page, trying to determine its order, intrigued by the beautiful prose of the old English language. It was then that I accidentally found it: “Passengers showered him with ejaculations of praise when Henry had saved the children from the burning train car.”
Casey, our oldest, was quite a natural reader. He was reading well by the time he was 5.
My next son was not quite the “natural,” unless it was soccer-playing. He was taught to read using the same method: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Only, I had to repeat every lesson at least once before going to the next, so I changed the title to “200 Torturous Lessons” and skipped the writing part of it until he was 7!
But both boys are bookworms today. It IS possible!! Look for “Raising Readers” in a future letter.
(On a side note: My current 6-yr-old wrote the note in the heading above. The message was the same even though he couldn’t spell either of my names correctly. 🙂 )
Love ya! Terri
Letters to Lindsey 
Awesome Terri! Love u also!Really enjoy reading your blog!!Keep up the Great Work!Your an inspiration to all people!:) With Love Dave Brateng
Terri,
Too funny. Love it. It reminds me a comment my very precious niece made yesterday and we decorated the house and Christmas Tree. As is one of our traditions, we were listening to an old Motown Christmas CD and having a good time. My oldest child had recently hung an African American face of Santa Claus to which my bi-racial niece quickly quipped “I didn’t know Santa Claus was black” You could have heard a pin drop for what seemed like an eternity. Then suddenly, everyone just busted out laughing.
Kids Say the “darndest” things.
Merry Christmas,
Outta the mouths of babes . . . Being a logophile, I loved it! Sadly, our culture today dictates more of what we hear and read—and it’s not for the better. 😦 That’s one of the reasons I love reading period writings. Thanks for the smile today, Terri.
Love it