Word up

Attention, ladies: If your man says you are acting like your mother, he may be giving you a compliment.

I'm serious. Yes, just like Mother, I do worry what people think. Yes, I do have trouble parting with possessions -- even plastic Cool Whip containers. But yes, I am also clever and creative. And, Mom and I both share this love, respect really, of the English language.

I think deep down, Marlys and I would have loved to have been English teachers. Words should be used appropriately (in speech and writing), written neatly and, without a doubt, spelled correctly. (Oh, I probably shouldn't say that or I'll have people editing my blog.)

Carter, too, is really grasping language arts and enjoying it. Each week, he gets a Big Word Challenge, where the students have to create as many words as they can using the letters from the "big word." They encourage the students to work on it with their parents so it can be a family activity.

I always enjoyed doing word puzzles as a child so I am having a ball helping him. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but last night when we started working on his word for this week, I said, "Do you know who would really get a kick out of this? Grandma Hedberg! We should call her and see if she wants to help."

And so he did. And yes, she was very excited and ready to accept the challenge. Carter told her she could just concentrate on the 5- and 6-letter words and he would handle the smaller words (though he's no slouch when it comes to those big words either).

"We could do this every week, Grandma," says Carter. "I'll call you with the Big Word on Monday or Tuesday and then call you later in the week to see if you came up with any words. Then, on the weeks we don't have a word, we could still call you to see how you're doing."

That sounds like a great plan! Of course, Grandma already came up with two words while on the phone with Carter.

Now, I told her not to become obsessed with this. She certainly shouldn't lose any sleep over it .... but I have a feeling that last night, instead of counting sheep, the letters in Baltimore were running through her head!