Tonight I asked my daughter to make words on the magnetic board that I showed her how to use last week.

The word is red. “What’s the word?” (I always ask her to repeat the word out loud. It is an important step in developing her ability to hear all of the internal sounds in a word). That’s right, red.

Let’s tap out how many sounds are in the word red.

/r/ - /e/ - /d/

How many sounds are in the word red?

Three! Amazing job.

Now, can you build the word red, finding the letters that make the sounds we just tapped out?

It’s tedious, really.

For me. For her.

But the repeated practice and detailed questions are a part of this important process of learning how to read.

For me. For her.

So, once we did a whole bunch of regular, old, boring words and the energy was waning, I decided to try and make her laugh.

So I said:

How do you spell the word but?

She’s 5 years old so she burst out laughing.

I didn’t tell her that the word but is actually a pretty boring conjunction and that the funny type of butt is spelled with two ts. Instead, I laughed with her and cheered her on as she tapped out the individual sounds in the word but, first with her fingers and mouth, and then finding the tiles on the board whose letters worked together to make the word but.

It was a quick and delightful moment.

After that, we packed her kit up and decided to go watch an episode of Modern Family. As we sat down to watch, she told her brother that she now knows how to spell the word but. And because he is 8 years old, they burst out laughing together.

Whenever possible, make learning funny; Embrace a child-like sense of humor.  It can make all the difference in the world.