If you recall from yesterday's post that we left desperate you with a borderline ballistic beginning reader trapped in a booth waiting for someone to bring your wiggly pint-sized pal something to eat! A dry crust of bread. Throw you a bone...something...anything. You've been waiting now for well over 15 minutes and your kiddo just can't take it no more! Now, there is nothing wrong with your little darling, nothing that a little entertainment intervention cannot remedy. And, believe it or not, you have a world of Sorry Service Survival resources right there, at your disposal. So pull out that piece of paper and pen with confidence, my friend. Let me show you how to save the day, one letter at a time.
What you're going to do is play a modified game of Hangman, utilizing the richness of the molasses-slow-serving restaurant environment as clues. Your budding reader is hyper-sensitive to language, in particular combining letters together to form words. So, while they're wasting time in the Big Boy kitchen, plucking the chicken or whatever is going on in there, let's have some word-building fun, shall we?
Look around you. There are scads of words to chose from, ripe for the picking. Why, there's the Exit sign or that package of Ketchup. Don't forget that packet of Sugar and its skinny substitute, Equal.
You're going to explain that the words you're chosing to play a simple game of Hangman can be found somewhere in plain sight - a sort of early-reader on-site word search, if you will.
For instance, take the word 'Donuts' in the logo posted to the left. Depending on your child's reading aptitude, we can play with this word in one of three ways. One being that you've pre-plugged in the vowels in the word for them. Another is listing the vowels for them, leaving it up to them to chose the correct one. Or we can go cold turkey - no clues - straight up do or die, Dude.
And, then, the best is yet to come. Once they have solved a puzzle, turn the tables on them. Let them find secret words from the plethora surrounding you. Have them count out the letters, draw the dashes, and craft the dreaded hanging tree. THEY LOVE THIS!!!!!
I'm telling ya, those fries, once they finally arrive, will grow stone cold. Your kiddo won't want to stop playing the Sorry Service Survival Game....I guarantee it.