Word Games

Our little grand-daughter started school this year, and as part of her preparation for reading we’ve been playing some entertaining word games with her. You know the sort of thing: big coloured cards or blocks with letters, and putting them together to form whole words. CAT, DOG, SHIP, HOLE and OAR.

“What  about this one ore that one, Grandpa?” “No dear, it’s spelt this one or that one.” “Why Grandpa? They sound the same.” “I know, but different spellings help us tell the different meanings of similar-sounding words.” “Awesome, Grandpa.”

Yes, without mentioning other variations of the “or” sound as in TAUGHT, SOUGHT and COURT! Not that I went into that just yet with the little one. But it did lead me to reflect on the rather silly – but nonetheless quite heated – debate taking place in Australia and other places between varying advocates on methods of teaching children to read.