Rhiannon Starts with "P"


Rhiannon brought her homework out this afternoon. I wish it was always this good. She begs to do her homework. I mean...she BEGS for it.

"PLEASE can I do my homework, dad?"

"Uh...no?"

"Dad! It's in my folder on the counter. There's coloring."

"Okay."

So we get the sheet of homework out. Today is all about "p". There are three rows each with a capital "P" and a lowercase "p" to trace, which she does instantly, Hannah Montana pencil clutched in a death-grip. She knows how to hold a pencil correctly, but she prefers the fist method.

"Otherwise it's all scribbly," Rhiannon says when I correct her. This is a child who has said "otherwise" since she was three. This is because she is a master negotiator and she has learned alternatives from her parents. "Eat your corn, otherwise there will be no Hannah Montana."

The corn gets eaten but quick (Texas phrase there).

Once Rhiannon has minded her "P"s ("Q"s are next week I am assuming, as this is a traditional school), she has to circle the pictures that begin with "P". On row one, she immediately gets stuck.

"'Bucket' does NOT start with 'P'".

"I think that's popcorn, Rhiannon."

"It doesn't look very much like popcorn."

"The artist is a hack, Rhiannon. Trust me. It's a bucket of popcorn."

"'Bucket' starts with 'B'!"

"Trust me. Circle it. 'P' for 'popcorn'."

"Okay".

She also circles a picture of a puddle.

Onto the next row and she's stymied again.

"'Apricot' starts with 'A'".

"I think that's a peach, Rhiannon."

"Why?" (she is always saying this, and in this context she has an excellent point).

"Um. Because this is a 'P' worksheet. So let's call it a 'peach'."

"Okay." She circles the apricot.

Final row.

"Dad, there's another bucket."

Sigh. She's right. But we are well in to learning about synonyms.

"I think it's a pail."

"Oh. But it looks like a bucket."

"You're right, but because we are doing the 'P' worksheet, it's a pail."

"OK."

No Child Left Behind? I think the worksheet's artist was.

"Can I color the pictures now please, dad?"

"Sure! But can I show you something first?"

Rhiannon is skeptical as if I am about to show her supper.

"OK. What is it?"

"Did you know that there are different alphabets?"

"No."

"And that in the Greek alphabet your name starts with 'P'?"

Rhiannon laughs. This is big fun.

"Here, let me write it out for you."

So I take the Hannah Montana pencil and write out her first name, commenting as I do so:

Ριαννον

"There's no 'h', so we just skip it. The 'R' looks like a 'P', and the 'a' looks like a fish, and the 'n's look like 'v's and do you know what 'o's look like?"

"No."

"'O's", I say.

This makes her laugh. "So in Greek, you spell your name 'rho iota alpha nu nu omicron nu'".

She is on the floor laughing, and I have officially blown her mind. She keeps the sticky note where I have written her name, though. And she accepts that other people must have other ways of communicating. We'll have more Greek lessons later. But for now, at her Arizona school, we have mastered the pronunciation of "tortilla". In Spanish, not Welsh. We are "p"s in a pod.

Rhiannon. Cute in any language.

Andrew (Παπα)

PS: Here's what I wrote, and then she copied it: