Brain Freeze

by Amy

One time, probably about a year and a half ago, my kids spent the night at Uncle John and Aunt Rachel's house. After dinner, while enjoying some ice cream, Uncle John introduced my kids to the concept of "Brain Freeze." (You know.... you eat too big of a bite of something cold and your head hurts....) I'm not exactly sure what crazy things Uncle John was doing and saying, but it made a lasting impression on my kids.

Fast forward to today....

Since Peter and Alex are finished with their 100 Easy Reading Lessons, we've been having "Reading Class." In reading class, we just read an easy book together. But, before we read, I review (or teach) some words/sounds they'll come across. Today, we were going over the "ai" sound. So, I wrote several words on the board and had them take turns reading them. Alex - nail. Peter - pain. Alex - train. So far, so good.... Then, I asked Peter to read "brain." He sounded it out, and pronounced in correctly, but slowly. I wasn't sure he knew what he had said, so I asked, "Peter, do you have one of those?" "Uh...no?" he responded. "Sound out again," I said. "See if you can figure out what that is." "br-ai-n...brain... Oh, I know. It's that thing that hurts when Uncle John eats his ice cream too fast!"

Clearly, I need to start teaching a basic science class!