Hangman

My middle son is a very enthusiastic boy. He gobbles up life (and fruit!), always wanting more. His fascinations have covered birds, the Titanic, maps in all forms and currently sports: cricket, football and badminton. No doubt tennis will join that list next week. He is one of life's optimists and his current ambition is to represent Great Britain at Badminton at the 2016 Olympics.

Another thing he has discovered recently is Hangman on the internet and I do like to sit next to him and play too. Earlier this week we were playing 'Ancient Inventions' words and it gave me some insight into the process of reading. My son guesses at letters with little idea of what word might be created (this of course is how to start hangman and he has taken my advice to start with vowels) and he just keeps on guessing. Because I have a lot of years experience of forming words, I am mentally testing out different letter combinations: an I O _ leads me to suggest an N; faced with _ U_IA_ I guess at 'SUNDIAL'. I know what combinations are likely and which are not. Of course, my newly reading son has much less experience to draw on. When this penny dropped I was even more amazed at his enthusiasm. I guess it would be similar if I were to play hangman in Lithuanian, or perhaps more like French, a language I know a little. I would quickly give up, frustrated and embarrassed. Not so my son; happy to be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb he will play on and is no doubt learning a whole bunch about word formation at the same time. Not to mention the fact that eyeliner was invented long before the abacus!