Literally

This week we have officially entered the world of spelling tests. On Monday Peyton brought home her list of words. Her teacher, Mrs. Seidel, attached an instruction sheet for the parents. Thank God! Imagine the blow to my ego if my first child failed her first spelling test.

Per the instruction sheet we were to complete a spelling word activity each night so that the children would be prepared for a spelling test on Friday. The first night we were to cut apart the words and have Peyton sort them into categories. Mrs Seidel assured us that the children knew the categories and could explain them to us. One category was words with "short a" sounds. Another category was "long a" sounds. The third category was "eyeball." I questioned Peyton on the "eyeball" category. Despite having successfully navigated many English and journalism classes in college, I had never heard of the eyeball category. Peyton insisted. I was anxious to learn about this one. Of the entire list of 20 words, only the word "what" was an eyeball.

So Peyton sorted the words for me. Rake--long a; snap--short a; make--long a, glass--short a. On Tuesday we were to do a blind sort. We parents, at least those of us who believe that we will have to relinquish our "mother of the year" trophies if our children don't master first grade spelling, were to read off the list of words. Without seeing the words Peyton was supposed to tell me the category of each word. I read the word, Peyton squeezed shut her eyes, thought about her options for what seemed like 7 minutes and declared each word to be short a or long a.

After four words, I couldn't take it any longer. I was ready to raise the white flag on first grade spelling. It had taken Peyton 428 minutes to make four easy classifications. With each word she closed her eyes, fluttered her eyelids, rubbed her temple and waited a seriously long time before making the declaration. I told her she needed to speed up or she would be repeating the first grade several more times. Still she closed her eyes and thought about each word.

I had to leave for a meeting so I suggested that Beth take a crack at this spelling thing. What's the use of having a teacher/principal for a mom if not to help out in situations like this. I suggested to Beth that Peyton may have a photographic memory because she was trying to see each word in her head before categorizing them. I knew that kid was brilliant.

When I got home that night, Beth informed that that Peyton was doing much better. Apparently when I told Peyton that we were doing a blind sort, she thought she had to pretend to be blind during the exercise. Oh and the category "eyeball"...she was trying to say oddball. It is going to be a long year.