Playing With Language

Celeste and Quinn have a new game where they take apart a word and look at the different phonemes/components.

During lunch today, Quinn started with zinnia: "If it didn't have /ə/ it would be zinny; if that didn't have /i/ it would be zin; if it didn’t have /zɪn/ it would be nothing!"

Then Celeste moved on to sunshine: "If it didn't have /sʌn/, it would be shine; if it didn't have /ʃaɪn/, it would be sun."

Then Quinn tried grass: "If it didn't have /gr/ it would be ass. Daddy, why are you laughing?"

Give Me a ג

So Celeste found a book about Channukah in the free book pile at the pool and has been reading through it. This morning she was reading it during breakfast, so entranced by the story of the Maccabees that she couldn't eat her toast. Plus it irritated Quinlan that Celeste wouldn't let her look at the pictures.

I took the book and read to the both of them while they ate, and when it got to the end and a discussion of the dreidel game, Celeste really wanted to make one and play. Back in December, I had picked up a four pack of tiny dreydlekh at CVS as distraction for the girls, so we broke them out and they took a few practice spins before having to brush their teeth and get ready for camp.

Fast forward to tonight. It's rainy and the girls are a little stir-crazy. I get home and Celeste and Quinn want to play dreidel. The three of us get some pennies and go through a few spins. At first there are a few נ and a ש or two, then Celeste and I both spin a few ג in a row. Quinn, who's mostly ended up with נ or ש is starting to get frustrated and then she shouts: "I gotta get a gimel!" Two spins later she did ... and then started getting bored ...