11/27/2025
A Thanksgiving SWI Moment That Filled My Heart
Yesterday I met with one of the most delightful, precocious little boys, the kind of kid whose curiosity lights up the whole session. He has that classic autistic profile where the wrong approach can trigger shutdown, so we’ve been building our own rhythm, our own flow. And lately, it’s been working. Beautifully.
We logged on during Thanksgiving break, no complaints, no hesitation. Just a sweet, sincere:
“Is there a session tomorrow? Because I’d like there to be.”
Who says that during Thanksgiving break?
When a child asks for SWI time, that is a gift.
Today we were writing a sentence about his volunteer work, and we slipped into Real Script practice, following the pathways, cueing strokes, adjusting letters, and celebrating when something looked just right. He commented on his own handwriting, wanted to change things, took initiative, and stayed engaged. Pure joy.
Then we hit a spelling challenge.
The word was toiletries.
We talked through toilet, the unusual suffix, and then why the in toiletry toggles to when we add . He initially said, “Oh, we drop the Y,” and I gently redirected:
“Not exactly, it switches places with . Kind of like taking turns.”
He paused.
And then he said something that stopped me in my tracks, one of those brilliant kid-generated analogies that reminds you why you love this work:
“Oh! So Y and I are like team players.
If one is in, the other waits on the bench.
They switch responsibilities when it’s their turn.”
I mean… come on.
A child with handwriting challenges, autism, and a long history of struggle, independently explaining orthographic toggling with a sports-team metaphor?
That’s Structured Word Inquiry magic.
It was one of those pre-Thanksgiving moments that just fills your whole chest with gratitude, for the work, for the children, for the privilege of teaching them how words really work.
This is why I do what I do.
🧡 Happy Thanksgiving.
May your heart be as full as mine today.
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