C.A.N.D.Y.

Anyone who is around small children of a certain age learns to become rather adept at spelling words out instead of saying them. It saves so much heartache and so many needless emotional roller coaster rides in the life of a toddler. When I first started working as a nanny, I was a little overwhelmed because I'm a bit of a slow speller. When someone spells out a word I have to repeat the letters to myself and visualize what the word looks like before I know what word they've spelled. This was surprising though because spelling has always been a strong point with me. Writing words out, I'm great at spelling. My slowness comes with listening and speaking. The letters get all jumbled up in my head whether they're coming in or going out. I guess I'm just a very strong visual learner and not much of anything else. I'm getting better at it though. There's nothing like caring for a toddler and needing to communicate with her parents that is better practice for listening to words being spelled out.

Popular words this week?
C.A.N.D.Y. (it's our new and improved method of bribery, er, reward system, for using the potty)
B.Y.E.
S.N.A.C.K.
P.U.F.F.I.N.S. (the name of her favorite cereal)
D.A.T.E. (as in the Mediterranean fruit, she LOVES them)
P.O.T.T.Y. (she does not like this)
O.U.T.
Z.O.O. (they live across the street from one)
H.O.R.S.E.
S.H.O.E.S. (yesterday, there was just too much frustration mounting from wanting to put them on and off and not having the motor skills to do it as proficiently as she wanted to. I had to remove them and quickly hide them in the nearest place I could find. They took up residence amongst the potholders and dishcloths in a kitchen drawer)

That's kind of a short list. Maybe that's why I'm getting better at it. My vocabulary only expands by a couple words a week which get repeatedly practiced. Ha. Oh well, at least I'm exercising my brain a little, right? I should probably get as much practice in as I can. Pretty soon she'll be spelling the words right along with us.