Wouble-U?
Before starting kindergarten, Tacy showed little interest in reading.
She had all the precursors in place: talked early, recognized her ABCs, knew the sounds the letters made, wrote down whatever we’d spell for her. We assumed that reading on her own would be the next step.
Forget it. She resisted every effort of ours to encourage her to sound out words.
We were puzzled, but we backed off. No sense pushing; she’d learn to read eventually.
Kindergarten has made all the difference.
She recognizes many words on sight, and what she doesn’t recognize, she tries to sound out. Her spelling is still quite creative, but every once in a while, she’ll really surprise us. We don’t have to encourage her, let alone push. She’s interested all on her own, and I credit her kindergarten teacher.
There’s just one thing. A minor irritant. One teeny, tiny complaint.
Her kindergarten teacher refers to the letter W as wouble-u.
I didn’t even realize this until one evening when Tacy was spelling out the title of a book, and when she got to a letter W, she started to say, “Duhhh…” and then corrected herself, “Wouble-u.”
“WOUBLE-U?!” I asked incredulously.
“That’s what my teacher says.”
“No.” I was emphatic. “It’s double-u.”
“But my teacher says…”
“I don’t care what your teacher says. You know the right name for that letter.”
Yes, I understand her teacher’s reasoning: “Wouble-u” starts with the sound that the letter makes. Kids will make the phonetic connection. And it sounds kind of cute, I suppose.
To a kindergartener.
But if this is the biggest complaint that I have about her education this year, I’ll count myself lucky.
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October 12th, 2007 at 6:27 am
wouble-u? Is she kidding? I guess it could be worse.
October 12th, 2007 at 7:10 am
[...] Wouble-U? [...]
October 12th, 2007 at 7:16 am
As usual, Jo is exactly the same. Since she started K a couple months after Tacy, she’s not quite there yet; but she’s FINALLY started to be willing to sound out words.
But wouble-u? That’s insane.
October 12th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Ummm…wouble-u? Ummm…no.
But it’s funny…my Patience was the same way about reading,and got her kick in the pants from kindergarten. She’s thrilled and motivated and it’s great.
Her main concern, actually, about entering kindergarten was, “But I can’t read yet!”
I said, “Oh yes you can, you just don’t realize it. You’ll get to school and see that you can.”
And sure enough.
Julie
Using My Words
October 12th, 2007 at 10:06 am
So, what you’re saying is that this
“T-Woubles-U?”
October 12th, 2007 at 10:14 am
When Maggie was learning to count, we fought tooth & nail about the correct pronunciation of “seven”. “But the Count says, “sewen!” I had to explain to her that the Count is a Muppet AND he’s foreign, so he has an accent.
kids.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
and I just don’t understand why public education has such a bad reputation!
But, if “wouble-u” came out of the mouth of my kindergartener, I would just gush over the cuteness of it. My 5 year old daughter still says “gei-rrl” for “girl”, gets me every time!
October 12th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
So, using that logic, C should be pronounced “key” and Q would be “qua”. It seems like that would be more confusing than helpful since most (all?) kids already know how to pronouce the letters when they get to kindergarten.
October 14th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Isn’t it wonderful when they start reading? It opens up so many doors for them.
And I guess she really does know how to pronounce W.
October 14th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Ew, that skeeves me out. Is that a pretentious thing? Like people who say “Zed?”
October 14th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Re: Q
I had learned it as “que” (or “cue,” like a pool cue stick.)
But my son’s Kindergarten teacher wanted us to pronounce it “Coo” (like a dove “coo”s)
In words, instead of “queen,” it was “coo-een” and so forth.
October 15th, 2007 at 8:14 am
I am appalled by wubble-U.
Glad that the reading is coming along though.