The Secret Lives of Vowels

Today I learned that W is sometimes a vowel.  Did you know that?  I’m pretty sure I’d never heard of such a thing before.  But there it was in the primer for today’s lesson, in black and white, complete with a concise and very clear explanation.  I had known that Y is sometimes a vowel, but I had always assumed that it was just a way to excuse the naughty little words that didn’t have any real vowels in there.  Turns out there is a real reason for it, and rules for when it applies, and all that juicy stuff to learn around the school table. 

The biggest lesson that I have learned from our phonics lessons with Buttercup is that, as a student, I never learned to read phonetically.  I am not quite sure how I learned to read at all, in fact, except that I was read to a lot and that I went to school not really understanding why other kids didn’t know how to read already.  There is a vague memory from Kindergarten when my teacher would pull me and a couple of other kids out of naptime for a Dick and Jane session – but that comes more from my mother telling me that it happened than from actual remembering.  I do remember first grade, when I and a boy in my class had to walk across the kickball courts to a second grade classroom to join their reading lesson – but I don’t remember the lessons so much as the embarrassment of having to walk anywhere with a BOY. (Bless his heart.)

Speaking of walking, a few weeks ago I learned from a Netflix video that when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking.  I was intrigued.  The video was timed to coincide with our introduction to vowel pairs and, while the same concept was covered in our primer, they never used that catchy little rhyme.  As we’ve progressed through the lessons, I’ve discovered why.  There are so many exceptions to that “rule” that the authors of our little lesson book seem to think it’s better to just teach each vowel pair separately.  I think I agree.  When I tried to help Buttercup by reminding her of that walking and talking rhyme, we were immediately confused by all of the endless exceptions.  That’s what we get for stereotyping.  Just because some vowel couples like the first one to do all the talking, doesn’t mean they all have relationships like that, does it?  And if the W wants to moonlight as a vowel?  By all means, let him.