Spell Check

From time to time, Oliver comes home with a book or other craft that is made and put together by the class. The latest was an "I See" book where each child in class made a drawing of something they "saw". We were to read the book with our children, see what all the children in class drew/saw and then write a comment/praise on the back pages of the book.

Oliver and I flipped through the book and he "read" each of the drawings by his classmates. Then, we came to his page.

I SEE THE  SEGALL.

"What did you see Oliver?"

"A sea gull. You know, the white bird that eats trash."

"Yes, I know. I was hoping you saw a Segal painting or sculpture."

"Who? What?"

"Nevermind."

What's a SEAGALL? And, more importantly who wrote that? The teacher, the aide? If so, Oliver was NOT going to be in public school for long. Hello home school.

And then, what "praise" did I write in the back. I could hardly write a scathing note on using spell check, especially when it came to a book that was being sent around to all the parents for viewing.

I flipped to the back of the book to see what the other parents had written. The first comment calmed me down somewhat and made me smile. Someone else had caught it too.

"We really enjoyed looking at all the drawings and reading the book as a family. Such wonderful colors and so creative--butterflies, robots and SEA GULLS! Great job!"

Yes, they did. All CAPS.

So I put a note of praise for the drawings and for Oliver's SEA GULLS. Then I called the teacher.

It was a classroom volunteer, another mom who did the writing. I didn't care to know who. I felt better it wasn't the teacher or the paid classroom aide.I can take the kindergarten home school kit out of my Amazon shopping cart.