Spelling Mississippi

The name of that southern state, with its collection of i’s and double s’s and double p’s, is such a great spelling milestone.  Who hasn’t learned to spell it before really understanding how spelling works?  The sound of those double letters is so mesmerizing.

Earlier this week Mr. SP came home from kindergarten.

Mr. SP:  Mom!  Storm taught me how to spell this really, really big word!

Me:  Oh?  What word is that?

Mr. SP:  Well, I don’t really know, but it goes like this:  M-i-s-s-s-s-i-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-i-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-i-p-p-y. (spoken extraordinarily fast)

YaYa:  That’s not really how you spell that, you know.

Mr. SP:  Is too!

YaYa:  No, it isn’t.

Mr. SP:  YES IT IS!  StORM SAID SO!

And I’m sure you can probably imagine the squabble that ensued.

We might not be ready for the state spelling bee just quite yet.