Z. comes out, all proud of herself. She announced that she spelled the word 'orphan'! She shows me on her tiny notepad, where she has spelled out 'OOFN' and explains that she sounded out the letters. I told her it wasn't quite right, but she did a great job of figuring out the sounds and putting letters together.
I then ask why she spelled that word specifically, and she explained it was the name of their class at Jedi school. Which is apparently a game that her and Ryan* play 'all the time.'
(After this incident, while I'm typing this up, she comes back out to show me that she spelled 'everyday,' which is spelled 'AVRDA.' And we've had a couple more words since then, as well. She's pleased as punch.)
* -
venkelos's son