Word Wednesday: Learning to Spell

I’ve always enjoyed watching children process the concept of spelling. Seeing how children absorb the many rules and exceptions involved in orthography and how they incorporate that into a composition is fascinating. So today I thought I’d share with you something I received in the mail a few days ago from my nephew The Hobbit, who has graced this blog with his presence before (note: you can click on any picture to see a larger version):


“My Favorite Book About Insects
By The Hobbit”

Look! The Hobbit does the same thing Trixie did for years: he writes from left to right, but composes a book from back to front. I love it!

Now, my camera is a point and shoot, so you may not have noticed the dedication on the cover, so allow me to zoom in and show you:

Betcha didn’t know my real name was Fritec, didja? I consider this a valiant effort by a 5-year-old to capture a very long, very difficult name. It’s close enough to “friuduric” that it works for my offline as well as my online monniker.

Now, let’s open the book and see what we learn about insects in this wonderful book:


“Caterpillars can turn into butterflies, but it has to find a leaf”

That is very true!

“But if they don’t find a leaf on time, they will die!”

And that ending is probably why this book happens to be the favorite book about insects, I think. (I scoff when people say little ones are too sensitive for discussions of death. Kids thrive on it!)

This has got to be the best book I’ve received in the mail in a very long while (and it's not even science fiction/fantasy!). Thank you, Three of Four, for mailing the Hobbit’s first published text to me. We all give it five stars.