Egg

Before dinner on Sunday, I kept my son busy with drawing and spelling activities.  He was able to independently sketch and label apple, cat, (lady)bug, (sail)boat, mouse, house, and ball.  The next instruction was, "draw a face." He scribbled a circle before pausing to think of what to draw next.  I was waiting for him to add eyes, nose, mouth, ear, neck, eye brows, and hair when
my wife emerged from the kitchen with a plate of omelet, which my son had requested.  He began to fidget.  I noticed that he was glancing from time to time at my wife as she was preparing the table.  "Eyes," I said to bring his attention back to the activity.  He wrote "egg" beneath the circle instead.  After underlining the word, he put down the crayon on the desk, and handed me the paper.  My normal reaction to this kind of behavior is to give him another sheet of paper and repeat the original instruction.  This time, I found myself allowing him to leave the desk and eat his omelet.  It was the first time he spelled that word on his own.  And I never taught him how to do it.