This is going to be more challenging than I thought...

Robin walked up to me in the kitchen and asked me, "Mom, can an 'I' make an 'E' sound?"

I said, "Not really Robin.....I guess there's some words that don't always follow the rules, but usually an 'I' will make a sound that's appropriate for a long 'I' or a short 'I' sound..."  And then I proceeded to think of words that followed the rule and that didn't follow the rule....to make it short, I spent about 5 minutes on a simple explanation of the basic rules of the English language....Robin listening fairly intently the whole time.

Then he walked away and showed me the word he was trying to figure out.

The word he was referring to was a Japanese word....so my whole explanation went out the window.....

This is going to be more challenging that I thought....

H :)

And this pic is taken first thing in the morning....no makeup and hoods up to disguise crazy hair...on both accounts.....love that boy.