Spelled Out

"I love to spell.... S-P-E-L-L!" Max has taken a renewed interest in spelling, and it's as if he realized that there were still a few quiet moments in our day... so he decided to make everything take three times longer to say! For such a super chatty kid, spelling everything he wants to say is quite a feat. Actually, the real feat is listening to him spell everything he wants to say.

Ok, honestly I don't usually mind too much. It's great practice for him, and I can see that he's starting to understand more of the intricacies of spelling rules. It's kind of exciting! But he has taken to using spelling when he wants to tell or ask me something that he knows I won't like.

"M-o-m-y? C-a-n  I  p-l-a-y  M-i-n-e-c-r-a-f-t?" .... it's like he thinks that I might just say yes because I'm too lazy to figure out what he spelled. He doesn't know that I can sense Minecraft from a mile away.

Or if I ask him to do some work, he often says, "N-o, M-o-m." This one has turned into a bit of a game. I will spell back "O-k, G-o  t-o  y-o-u-r  r-o-o-m," but before I finish, he's off to do what was asked of him. We have an unspoken understanding that things that are spelled are not to be taken seriously. He hasn't pushed it too far (and I definitely wouldn't accept spelled insults) so as it stands, spelling is a safe way to say the things he sometimes thinks but knows he shouldn't say to me.

But the other day he decided to walk the line. I think I had just reminded him to clear his dishes from the table, an expected job that the kids usually have no problem with. Being seven has apparently given him a somewhat inflated sense of self, because before he completed the task, he took the time to spell out "Y-o-u-r  n-o-t  t-h-e  b-o-s  o-f  m-e." Where he heard that phrase, I'll never know. I immediately spelled back, "Y-e-s  I  a-m", and he smiled and obeyed.

I might have to remember this when he's a teenager and decides to really talk back to me. Maybe if I spell at him he'll remember that I am the B-O-S.