Los Angeles Doesn't Exist

So do you remember when I talked about how Mister Man's teacher didn't do the best job correcting his math homework? I let it go because Mister Man needs to learn that people in authority aren't always right, and really... in the grand scheme of things, it isn't that big a deal. He was fine with it, and I chalked it up to a bad teacher book, though it wasn't the first time it happened.

Last night, we received his Daily Five (little bits of practice work students spend 5 minutes working on each day in school) for the past week. As always, I looked through it to see what I need to work on with Mister Man. And my jaw dropped.

The possessive correction? Meh. Yes, it should be "Mr. Tyler's" but it was a little hard to see where he put the apostrophe. It almost looks like a comma for the sentence above instead of an apostrophe in the sentence he wrote. He needs to work on his penmanship, but fine motor skills are one of his challenges common amongst those with autism. That's part of why he's in private OT once a week.

Ditto with the correction of "two." I can see that he wrote two with a "w" and not just to, but the "w" is half into the o, so it's hard to see what he wrote unless you're really looking closely. Again, he needs to do a better job writing, and that's fine.

Sock? I totally get why he circled that answer. It's something that goes on your foot. It makes sense, but it's wrong. They're really looking for the more specific "footwear" answer, so sock was out. Categorization is also something that he struggles with sometimes due to his autism.

But ummm Los AngelOs? That's the one that threw me for a loop. Actually, it had me questioning my own spelling abilities. Maybe I've been spelling Los Angeles wrong for more than three decades (hush, I learned to write early).

Oh. Wait. I googled it. I haven't been spelling it wrong.

Less than two months left in the school year. Less than two months remaining. It's the mantra I keep repeating as I wait to hear whether or not Mister Man's petition to attend Little Miss's school is approved.

What are the words that throw you for a loop when you're writing?

Creative Solutions

This morning, Mister Man and Little Miss played very nicely with the Word Whammer. It's really a great toy. Mister Man got it for his birthday last October, but I never even took it out of the box until a couple months ago. Silly me. It's a lot of fun!

The toy allows you to find letters, make "words" and see what they sound like or search for specific words with help that starts with "spell dim" and moves all the way to "the d is green." They have a lot of fun making words. Little Miss's words tend to be gibberish, but Mister Man has lately started spelling more real words.

I was in the family room working on something when Mister Man asked me for spelling help.

Mister Man: Mommy, how do you spell "itwaansh" (it was sort of unintelligble)

Me: Umm, its is spelled i-
Mister Man: No, atndsh
Me: Ant?
Mister Man: No, ateangsh
Me: I'm not sure, Sweetie. Sorry, but I can't help you with that one

It's quiet for a few minutes, and then:

Mister Man: I-N-C, Mommy how do I make it fit?
Me: Ohhhhh! "Inch!" Sweetie, that's four letters, and there are only three on the Word Whammer

More silence for a minute or so. Then I hear someone jumping up and down. Three guesses who was jumping up and down. He asked me to come check it out. And I found:

Me, I would not have thought of that solution -- obviously, as I didn't offer it to him. Needless to say, he was quite pleased with himself.

And yes, he also dressed himself. Thomas matches Thomas in his mind, regardless of whether it really does. And who am I to complain?

The kid cracks me up. And how he decided to spell inch or how he figured that out, I'm still not sure. Now if I could only get Little Miss to recognize when a letter is right side up or upside down!