foniks

in our scool, we teach the kids to read primarily through phonics. we teach them to recognize the sounds of the letters, and from there, form words. we also teach them to learn to speak english well, even though we keep saying we are proud to be filipinos. (go figure) but we cannot always be sure that they get follow-up at home. we find parents who are constantly at work, leaving the children to the bilungual yaya (bisaya and english make for a really interesting conversation). and the children don't always speak english at home, anyway.
so, here is our dilema: in speaking filipino, we have no difficulties teaching them to read. it's the english language giving us problems. not all their words can be spelled phonetically. as such:

1. what is your favorite toy?

• my favorite toy is barbe
• may favorit toi is dal
• my favorite toy is my bayking
• my favorite toy is buk

2. who is your favorite cartoon character?

• my favorit cartun caracter is sponj bob
• my fayvorite cartoon caracter is dora da eksplorer
• my fayvorit cartun caracter is barbe

3. what is your favorite flower?

• my favorit flower is rows
• my favorite flower is chulipe (at least she's familiar with diphtongs already!)
• my favorite flower is yelow

even their notes to their teachers are excercises in frustration:

1. hapi valentins day, ticher kati!

2. i mis yu and i lav yu, picher elowi.

3. i em prinses barbe!

4. yu ar biyutiful and nis

5. i lik yu my tisher (she's trying to say that she liked her as the teacher)

6. meri krismas en hapi nu yir! (at least i knew who really gave me the present)

7. anica let pley hapi frend togeher (anica let her friend play with her and they were happy together)

8. sirkle skuer trayagel rektagel

and the best so far:

9. dir gesus, plis meyk nela pley nis to me, i want to pley her flower. (she wants to play with nella's hat with flowers, but nella won't let her, so she wrote a note to Jesus)

it's kinds hard keeping your laughter in, especially when they wait with baited breath for you to tell them what a beautiful letter they gave you!