Teaching Spy and Q vocabulary words can be… interesting.

Take today’s example. One of Spy’s vocabulary words this week is: antenna. The instructions were simple: circle the word that does not belong. Here, you try it:

claw     antenna     machine     eye

Easy you say?

Are you certain? We spent a good 5 minutes arguing discussing which of the four words to choose.

Spy chose to circle ‘ claw ‘.

Spy’s argument went like this: An antenna receives signals. An animal’s antenna transmits signals about touch. A radio antenna transmits signals – radio signals perhaps. An eye transmits signals: light which conveys visual information. And a machine can also transmit signals.

Therefore a claw, which is used to grab onto things, is the odd one out. (I was interested in moving on to another activity and didn’t dare touch on proprioception.)

In the end, I had to explain that the workbook was probably thinking ‘body parts’ and that since a machine was man made, it was likely the odd one out. Spy thought that since ‘antenna’ was a vocabulary word, we should take into account both definitions that the workbook provided.

In the end, we agreed to disagree.

Spy crawled into our bed this morning and started telling us about the kids that sit at his table in school – two girls and a boy. As he talked about the boy, he started to laugh.

“The teacher keeps calling him Harry.” Snort. “I don’t think that’s his original name.” More laughter.

Spy figures no one would voluntarily name their kid “Hairy” and (after two weeks) Spy is still trying to figure out  this boy’s “real” name.

Twice a week Spy brings home a packet from school containing a word ring (sight words) and a book at his reading level to read with spymom and spydad.

For a while, the reading level was fairly consistent. Then there was a dramatic swing to the easy side when a book featuring adorable baby animals arrived in his backpack.

Spydad and spymom’s eyebrows went up. Had Spy been demoted?

And just last night, there was a book a bit beyond his current abilities called The Bravest Cat! featuring a true story about a mother cat named Scarlett who rescued her kittens from a burning building.

So we asked.

Turns out Spy isn’t happy with the books his teacher has been assigning him. When Mrs. C turns her back, he swaps out his reading material for a book that he wants to read.