Southerner

Sam is currently obsessed with how to spell.  He is constantly telling me what words start with and he is correct on the first letter nearly every time.  He has spelled a few words correctly by sounding them out slowly and writing them as he sounds them out.  He has spelled and written tap, pat and top correctly.  He struggles with other words.  Words that he tries to spell according to the rules of pronunciation he learned in preschool.  Or according to his pronunciation.  His southern pronunciation.  Case in point, today...

"Mama, you know what this spells?  T-E-F."

"T-E-F, honey?  Hmm, I don't know.  What does that spell?"

"Tef, Mama."

"Tef?"

"Yeah, Mama.  You know,  tef."

And he proudly pointed to his pearly whites.

His pearly white tef.