whilst stuck on a train today (usual journey time 5 mins, today 30 mins) esther and i did some spelling practice.

i saw a sign saying 'litter' by a bin. i went through the word phonetically -

"li spells 'li'
double tt is 't'
er is like at the end of esther, so is 'er'

li - tt - er , li-tt-er. what does that spell ?"

"it spells bin" said esther.

"don't be a fool" i said. "it spells 'litter'".

"what's litter daddy" said esther.

and therein lies the problem. kids today read everywhere "do not drop litter" yet they don't even know what litter is.