Alpha, Omega... Who Needs the Middle?

Did you ever see that email forward that described a study that said if you completely misspell words that the human brain can read the message anyway as long as the first and last letters were correct?  Like this:

Dsd ywu eevr sce taht eimal frrwaod taat dserciebd a sdtuy taht siad if ycu cmlpoeetly mpssiell wdros taht the hmaun biran can raad the mseagse awynay as lnog as the fsrit and lsat leettrs wree cceorrt?

I was always fascinated with that concept, that explains why we can all be bad spellers and fail to catch our own mistakes.  It is because of our amazing brains that we need spellcheck!

Speaking of amazing brains, (yes, here’s the part where I start bragging about my child), my Katy Rose certainly has one.  It seems only last week I was still trying to show her the correct way to hold a crayon or marker.  Now, she is picking them up and holding them without me even mentioning the correct way to hold it.  I can still remember thinking the way we were supposed to hold our pencils was dumb, so I fully expected her to resist.  There I go, making assumptions again.  (Yes, I said it, but that doesn’t mean you need to call me an a#$.  This is a family-friendly blog.)

You may remember I was recently elated to discover that Katy Rose knows how to make smiley faces.  She has really expanded on this talent, and now makes smiley faces on just about every object she draws.  She made a picture at dinner the other night of a cherry tree with a swing, a pumpkin, a sun, and other assorted goodies.  Yes, everyone gets to show their happiness, including the sun, the cherries, and of course, the swing.  I have joined the ranks of parents who are happy to plaster their kids’ handiwork not only on the fridge, but on any available posting space at my work station.

When I came home yesterday, I was blown away by the work she did at Grandma’s house.  She used four pieces of paper from a square notepad, and drew a puppy along with some “words” on the first one.  Then she duplicated the same puppy and words three times!  One for Grandma, one for Mommy, one for Daddy, and one for herself.  Is it just me?  Come on, this is incredible, right?  (“Yes, Wendy, of course it is.  She is an Artist Genius, obviously.”)  Thank you, that’s what I’m talking about!

The really cool part is what she wrote on the pictures.  I asked her to read it to me.  Under the puppy, she made an F and a W.  This spells “Woof” to Katy Rose.  Above the puppy, there is an S and a D.  That spells “said.”  Then above the puppy’s head is a D.  That means “the” (think “de” since she isn’t good at saying the “th” sound yet).  And at the top next to the D is PPE.  That spells “puppy.”  All together, the picture says, “Woof, said the puppy” (or “Woof, said de puppy”).

Wf, sd d ppe.  She’s got the basic first and last sounds down.  Do you realize what this means?  My kid can already spell like the rest of us!