Spelling

I’m a pretty good speller. I also like to cast spells (just kidding), but right now, I’m under the spell of my son’s spelling words. Third grade. You know, I don’t remember what I was learning when I was a third grader. But was I really learning to spell words like “absence,” “coarse,” and “population?” Maybe — but something tells me not.

The funny part is imagining Benjamin having a discussion with one of his friends, using some of his spelling words. “Yes, I think I’ll go over to the acreage and put some liquid fertilizer on it so that the population of the proper soil nutrients will be restored, so that I will have success in my effort to preserve the integrity of the soil.”

I guess the word “acreage” made me chuckle.

Those are not easy words! How many of you can, just off the top of your head, spell the word “absence,” anyway? Can you spell “mischievous,” and can you say it correctly? I learned in fourth grade as I was reading, that the word is pronounced “MIS-chuh-vuhs,” not “mis-CHEE-vee-uhs.” Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it.