My kid rules~!~ or Introducing the new punctuation mark
First and foremost, Liz and I created a new punctuation mark as evidenced in the title of this post. The pedestrian exclamation point has been improved for teens and adults across the globe. Why?
Because there are times when you really want to, pardon the pun, punctuate a sentence with tons of emotion. Sometimes a solitary exclamation point won’t do and duplicate explanation points are juvenile, in my opinion.
Hence the new punctuation ~!~
It represents a sea of strong emotion. And the keys are conveniently located right next to each other. Hold down your shift key and hit `1. The ` key is to the left of the 1 key and I’ve never used that mark before. Ever.
I don’t even know what that symbol is called, so that’s an added benefit right there. The ` key is getting more publicity. In my head, when I read that I substitute the sound “uhnt” for that symbol.
The ` key is finally being used. You’re welcome ` key. Bonus points for anyone who can give me the correct name and pronunciation for that symbol and the traditional usage of that symbol. Let the Google search begin!
I must issue a word of caution regarding the use of the new punctuation mark. It is to be used sparingly or else the meaning will degenerate. You will notice, through the rest of this post, I have only used it occasionally to keep its value high.
Moving on.
This is your basic gushing-on-my kid post. Leave now if you can’t take today’s sugary goodness (waves goodbye to those readers.) See you tomorrow when the dark cloud of sarcasm returns.
My middle kid is in first grade and is learning to read. She memorized all of the basic sight words in Kindergarten and is learning new words each day via flash cards. We’re still working on the concept of sounding words out but she’s getting the hang of it.
Anyway, yesterday she actually read an intriguing story about a cat named Sam. It’s called “Sam Come Back!” by Susan Stevens Crummel.
Now this isn’t your basic Sam is a cat. Sam ran. Sam the cat ran.
Well it sort of is, but there’s mystery and intrigue. Why did Sam run away? Did he come back as the title demanded? What about the lady in the book whose feet are enormous? I don’t have time to scan the photo but they’re huge, trust me.
So we went over it and then she read it aloud to me and Emily. She actually read it to Emily as a bed time story and it was awesome~!~
But even more awesome was the little trick taught to her by her first grade teacher. After she read through it four or five times she declared, “Now I need to read it backwards because it’s getting too easy.”
This is where the needle on the record came screeching to a halt and silence fell upon the room. “Say what?” I replied.
“Mrs. C said to read the story backwards. Word by word.”
I thought she meant read page 17 from left to right and then page 16 from left to right and so on. No, she read the order of the words in the sentences backwards — from right to left like our Hebrew friends. And then went backwards page by page.
As in: cat that nab! way that ran Sam.
Check that out gingah! That’s a very clever way of shaking and stirring those words via the thought process. As you know, small children tend to memorize pages of stories that are read over and over even though they do not understand the words on the page. Reading the words backwards is a way to make sure they are not just memorizing each page.
Snaps to you Mrs. C, snaps to you.
In addition, these little stories have a study section at the end. That’s right, this first grade book has a study section at the end of each story, but I have to read it to her since it uses big words. She was asked, in the study section at the end of that story, to deduce what the word nab meant based on the content and the illustrations. Yeah, jack.
Now maybe this is a standard teaching method. I ain’t a teacher and I never said I was. But I thought that was pretty slick.
So there. Definitive proof that my kid rules~!~ And so does her teacher.
