Spell the number "8".

Ty and I have been working diligently on his spelling list every week.  I quickly learned that the old-school tactics of trying to drill the words into his head by raising my voice and speaking slower don't work very well with Ty.  So I resorted to bribery.

We don't let our kids have sweets very often so when they have a chance to earn them... they go all out.  I told Ty that if he could remember how to spell the number "eight" (he was having the toughest time with this one) and recite it to Mom after dinner that he could have any treat he wanted.  He proceeded to repeat "E-I-G-H-T" for the next hour and a half.  During dinner I even tried to distract him by starting a conversation with him but he was still whispering those five letters in between answering my questions.  So then I started to tease him by throwing out my own spellings of the number 8.  "B-Y-C-H-T... C-I-D-A-T"... and so on and so forth.

When he was finished with his plate he asked if he could finally recite the spelling of the number 8 to Mom, and as soon as I said yes he blurted out "E-I-G-H-T"!   And without even waiting for approval, as soon as he finished and with a big grin on his face he went right out to the freezer in the garage and got a Schwann's chocolate ice cream cone, came back inside and proceeded to eat in front of all of us.  Unfortunately the spelling of the number 8 is now so ingrained in his head that when he gets confused about the spelling of a word he will often revert back to "E-I-G-H-T".