Both sets of Spencer's grandparents gave him money for Easter. He spent some of it on his new fish. The rest was burning a hole in his pocket. Every day he asked if he could take it to the store to spend it.
After making him wait a week we asked him what exactly he wanted to buy with his money. He told us he wanted us to take him to a book store so he could buy some books.
Can't argue with that.
So, last Sunday we went off to Barnes and Noble.
He picked this:
And this:
Wonder Pets is Spencer's new show. He's obsessed. There's talk of a Wonder Pets themed 4th birthday party.
Are you familiar with this show?
The show's main characters are three elementary school classroom pets — Linny (a guinea pig), Tuck (a turtle), and Ming-Ming (a duckling). They are presented as a trio of heroes who rescue baby animals as they demonstrate the benefits of teamwork (thanks wikipedia).
It's a cute show, but I've got a BIG problem with it. Ming- Ming the duckling has a phonological process known as "gliding". Gliding occurs when the liquid consonants /l/ and /r/ are replaced by /w/ or 'y' so that "rabbit" sounds like "wabbit" and "leg" sounds like "yeg". As a speech language pathologist I kind-of don't agree with this cartoon providing an immature and just plain incorrect speech model for children. Ming-Ming is dang adorable though and it doesn't bother me enough that I won't let Spencer watch while I'm making dinner.
There's another problem with the show, and this problem has brought conflict into our home:
Spencer believes that their names are Winny, Tuck and Ming-Ming. It doesn't matter how times we show him the word Linny and explain what sound an /l/ makes. We won't even go into the fact that he claims a /p/ makes the "w" sound. It also doesn't matter that the song at the beginning clearly says Linny.
Amy was over here today and I had her read the characters names from the Wonder Pets website. She broke the sad news that it was in fact, Linny. Didn't work. Spencer did not change his mind.
I told Spencer that I would invite 500 literate people over and they would all read the name and agree that it was Linny. He told me that he would invite 6 people over and they would all say that /p/ was for Winny.
There is no end in sight.
Here's the future head of the debate team this morning.
3 years-8 months
4 comments:
Well good for him for not giving into peer pressure. Even if it is, you know, kinda fact.
I'm kinda torn on that show too. Luckily we don't watch it much. We stick to little girls who talk to backpacks, boys who scale cliffs to save animals, and talking trains.
Your argument with Spencer is hilarious. I love that he also chose an exact number of people that he was going to invite over.
Don't worry Natalie, i think the phonemic awareness confusion is only stressful because of your background! Too funny!
I've never seen the show, but can I play devil's advocate? Maybe the show is trying to teach tolerance of people with speech problems??? Hey, it was worth a shot! :-p
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