T-G-I-F.

When teaching kids phonetic alphabets, kids get very excited being able to break words apart (See: How to Spell) and put them together (See: How to Read). In their excitement to be able to read and spell, they will front any alphabet and it's sound with any word set they can imagine. Since my kids know their alphabets and their sounds pretty well, they can usually make an educated guess what the first letter and strong emphatic letters are. Hence, "T" says "Teh, teh, teh-daaaie". Of course, some of them will put any alphabet down just to try to make a word.

Today being TGIF, we attempted to breakdown the word "F-R-I-D-A-Y". A very important word in my lexicon.

"Ffff-rie-daaie. Feh, feh. Friday starts with?"

"F!!!!" shout my twelve kids in orchestrated symphony. Good.

"What else starts with F? What else starts with the 'Feh, feh' sound?"

"Feh-lower!" Good!

"Feh-issssh!" Excellent!

"Feh-lamingo!" Well done!

"Feh-riends!" Great job!

And then, once in a while, God sends an in-joke....

"Feh-RARRRIII!!!" Perfect!

A reflection of the kind of japanese kids and their families who send them to international schools. But if you thought that was the punchline, wait another minute while Dan-The-Man, the K-2 class clown ponders...

"Feh-Feh--Feh--uag. Feh-uag!" Dan-The-Man proclaims with a dimpled grin so proud of himself. This is Dan, who watches The Simpsons on Fox Cable, who is mostly Japanese but has a mommy who spent most of her time in America. Dan-The-Man of the same Misplaced Phonetic Alphabet fame.

"What was that Dan?"

"Fuag! Fuag! Fuag!"

Oh dear. Could it be that bad at home? I don't remember that particular french word on The Simpsons, then again I don't get to watch The Simpsons here either. Don't tell me mom would use that word infront of the lil' tyke?!?!

"Dan, can you show me what is that?" I am too shocked and embarassed to try to repeat the word to him lest the headmaster walks by and hears me asking "Can you show me 'fug'?"

And Dan points to his locker. "Fuag!" Inside the locker is his bag. BAG.

"Ah! B says, beh, beh, beh-aaaag!" I heave a sigh of relief.

Good try Dan.

Audio: The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot.
Biblio: The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.
Cerebrio: Anor Thanksgiving luncheon tomorrow at The Canadian Academy by KIBC. A tryptophan coma just before leading Women's Biblestudy isn't a great idea though...