The short a

Wolfie explain how bees make honey

Wolfie's reading and spelling homework featured words with the short a sound.

Is it a bag or a bat?

Is it a man or a map?

He had to read questions like this and write the word that matched the picture.

The final question asked him to write his own word with a short a sound.  Now, for some reason one of the first words Wolfie could spell was "bed".  I don't recall doing anything special with this word, or these letters, or this concept.  One day he announced, "I know how to spell bed...b - e - d."  He was also able to spell "go" and "zoo", thus these three words, and his name, became his beginning repertoire of words-I-can-spell.

Now, a year and a half later, he could finally put that special word, bed, to use.  Sort of.

Wolfie said, "Well I know a word, 'bed', and maybe I can put a short a sound in that word."  I asked him to sound it out and he said, "bad" and then smiled for he just made a correct choice, then looked a little concerned and said, "Well maybe I should chose a different word because that word is...uh...a bad word."  And then we laughed and he went with "man".