24 Things My Kindergartner Said After One Week of Vocabulary Practice

We started doing ten minutes of dictionary app time before school. Just ten minutes, usually while eating toast, usually while I was also making lunches and trying to find someone's shoe. Results have been mixed. Delightful, but mixed.

A few of the highlights from week one:

1. "Dad, this orange is vibrant." Correct use. I almost put down my coffee to applaud.
2. "My stomach feels hostile." She meant upset. Philosophically, not wrong.
3. "I am very efficient at putting on shoes." She had taken eleven minutes to put on shoes. Eleven. She was not efficient.
4. "Can I have an additional cookie?" Technically accurate. Refused on grounds of policy, not vocabulary.
5. "This blanket is cozy." "That's a regular word," I said. "I know," she said. "I like it." Fair enough.
6. "Grandma, your hair is elegant." Grandma has been dining out on this compliment for three months straight.
7. "My teacher was very stern today." When I asked what happened: "She told me to sit down." This tracks.
8. "The sky is magnificent again." Again. As if she's been keeping a log.
9. "I am experiencing discomfort." She had a splinter. She received significantly more sympathy for this phrasing than a standard "ow" would have generated. I suspect she noticed.
10. "That dog is enormous." It was a standard-sized labrador. She may have exaggerated. We're working on that word too.
11. At dinner: "This is adequate." She meant it as a compliment. I'm choosing to believe that.
12. "My brother is being obnoxious." He was two. He was also, genuinely, being obnoxious. No notes.
13. "What's a vendor?" "Someone who sells things." "Like me when I sell my drawings?" "Sure." (She has never successfully sold a drawing. She has made many attempts and remains optimistic.)
14. "I feel confident today." She had a new backpack. The new backpack has done more for her self-esteem than anything I've tried.
15. "Dad, are you pondering?" I was staring into the fridge at 6pm trying to figure out dinner. Yes, technically.
16. "This movie is rather predictable." We were watching the same Pixar film for the seventeenth time. She was correct.
17. When offered broccoli: "Reluctantly." She ate three bites. By her standards, this is a triumph of personal growth.
18. "Is 'gobsmacked' a real word?" It is. "It's my favorite word." She has since used it correctly twice. I am gobsmacked.
19. "I am exhausted from thinking." She had answered four math questions. She was not exhausted from thinking. She was done with homework and looking for an exit.
20. "This is a dilemma." She had two identical socks and couldn't decide which foot they went on. She sat with this for longer than I would have expected.
21. At 7:30am, completely unprompted: "Dad, what does melancholy mean?" I told her. "Okay," she said, and walked away. I still don't know what she was planning with that information.
22. "I am not frustrated. I am furious." Fair distinction. She was also correct about which one applied.
23. "The flowers are blooming and it is spring." Both correct. Just happy. No note here.
24. After I said something she disagreed with: "That is an interesting perspective, Dad." She's six.

We downloaded Kids Dictionary to fill ten minutes before school. Now she corrects my word choices at breakfast, describes sunsets as magnificent, and uses "adequate" to describe my cooking.

I couldn't be more proud.