It was a light and fluffy night. The snow was falling. It was quiet on the old homestead. Pint was busily wasting time at her computer. ½ Pint wanted to read.

Now that she is in Kindergarten, she thinks she should already be able to read. Apparently, there is a reading fairy who comes by and bites you sometime during your kindergarten year, and presto! You can read.

So, we pick a book. For many years, I only read one author to the kids. I figured, hey, if I have to read, I'm gonna enjoy it darn it!

So we get good old Dr. Suess.

Green Eggs and Ham.

We start out.

That.

Okay honey, what sound does Th make when you say it? She doesn't know. I explain that every single time you see the two letter T and H together, it will make the THHHHH sound. Good.

I cover up the th revealing only the 'at'. I ask her if she knows that word. She proudly says AT.

I ask her what would you get, if you added TH to AT. Smart kid, she says THAT !!

And we are off and running.

When she comes to a new word she does not know, which is clear over on page 33, the word is train. She guesses what the word would be by looking at the picture on the page. Pretty dang smart I am thinking, but of course, I am prejudiced. A few other new words pop up. We are really having a good bit of trouble sounding out words. She knows the sounds the letters make, she knows how to string them together, but the end result is just not the word we are looking for..

The next page we have trouble with is page 36. Good old Sam and his friend are now in the train tunnel. We struggle through, we struggle through, she says, BOX. I say nope. I say, it starts with a D. Box doesn't start with the Duh sound. She says Boat!. I say nope, thats the bh sound, this word starts with the Duh sound. She says FOX. No honey, it starts with Duh and ends with the Cuh sound. She doesn't even guess Duck..which to me would make sense...... and finally, giving up, I tell her the word is DARK. Good on then.

A few pages later, we are on page 42, still on the train, with the track hanging in mid air supported only by a slim tree branch with two red pieces of wood on it, Sam and his friend are now perched precariously on the top of the train, sitting in a blue car. There are several passengers in the car besides Sam and his little friend.

“Could you, would you, with a .......”

GOAT? She is unfamiliar with this word. We sound it out. She says gaaaaaaa. She says ahhhhhhhh (one of the O sounds). She says eeeeeeeeeee as in small a sound. And finally, the T sound. It takes a good bit to put them all together. She is not a phonics kid. She is a very visual kid. Hands on kid. Finally, we get the word. GOAT !!

Rock on little girl.

Next page. Now we are clear to page 47. It is a long page.

I could not, would not, on a boat.

I will not, will not, with a goat.

I will not eat them in the rain.

I will not eat them on a train.

Not in the ......... she falters.

I say, look at the first letter, and the last letter. She does. I ask, “what is the first letter?” She says D!

Proud. I say what is the last letter? She replies, “K!”

I say, sound them together and what do you get?

She looks up and proudly says

GOAT !!!

We couldn't help ourselves. We start cracking up, DH and I. There is only so much a grandparent can take.

Now, insane people that we are, we are walking around the house, and whenever something happens that totally doesn't make sense, one or the other of us will look at each other and shout at the top of our lungs.....

GOAT !!

And then we collapse into gales of laughter, and the kids look at us like we are nuts and we don't care.

So, for all you out there in blogland....a very merry GOAT to think of today, as we approach the celebration of Our Lord's birth.