Fatherhood and teaching = Andy

I feel this message needs to be prefaced with a simple and completely honest comment. Andy is a wonderful father and teacher. We'll just have to remember, that everyone makes mistakes from time to time.

This evening Andy has been working with Evelyn on letters and words. Using a large MagnaDoodle, Andy has written down simple letters that Evelyn has easily identified and associated with the correct sound that the letter makes. It was all going so well, until...he started working on how the two letters...T and H...come together to make one sound...as in the word "the". Andy was explaining the sound combination to Evelyn by writing down the word "the". In his explanation he decided to use the word in a sentence to illustrate its use, function and sound. The problem came in the sentence he used. Andy said, "As in...Kick the cat."

My wide eyes and gasping sound quickly made Andy realize his mistake.

Andy continued to work on Evelyn recognizing/sounding out the word "the", but thankfully he used a different sentence. Evelyn kept sounding out T, then H, then the E sound. Andy kept asking her again and again, finally finding it frustrating after many trials. Finally Evelyn said she didn't want to play the game anymore. So Andy pulled out the "I'll give you a M&M for every time you say it right." Finally Evelyn said it correctly a few times, so she got her M&M's. The thing is, after she received the candy Andy wrote "the" down again. Before he could even show her the board and ask her...she immediately told Andy..."You ask yourself". Effectively ending his teaching session!