I started by asking her to pick out a bunch of words based on things she was thinking of or things she saw in the room. Here is her list:

• Car
• Molly
• Multiplication
• Kit
• Clue
• Flecity
• Pen
• Math
• Happy
• Latin
• Man
• Staples
• Monkey
• One
• French
• Pencil
• Sleep
• Map
• Blue
• Won

There were more words than this, but I only wrote down those so we had a list which (a) had enough words to be challenging but not too many to be discouraging, (b) had at least a few words with the first letter(s) identical, (c) had at least one word with a subset of another word.

After writing the words on a blank piece of paper, she cut out the words and began the Dictionary Game! I asked her to put all the words in an order that would make them easy to use. There were no other rules to the game. Of course, I planned to help her along with assessing each decision and arriving at logical conclusions.

After a brief discussion, she suggested and agreed that ordering them alphabetically made the most sense because nearly everyone has learned the alphabet in an order that they can easily recall. Had I been doing this game, I would have started with ordering two words and then inserted the other words in the correct location, one at a time, based on my computer programming background.

I was pleasantly surprised to see her start in a different way. She immediately started by grouping the words, some by their first letter and others by their position in the alphabet. I found this so refreshing to see a new way of looking at things, especially one which appeared to be more global and holistic, rather than strictly logical!

Soon, however, she realized that there were too many to manage this way and decided to begin with the 4 or 5 she had and move to inserting the other words. It was interesting to see her deal with the words “pen” and “pencil” because she had to decide which should come first. After measuring the merit of both choices, she decided “pen” should be first, because it was shorter.

She struggled well with the 6 words beginning with “m” as she tried to remember which letter of each word she was comparing. It helped her when I said the letters of each word, starting at the beginning, stopping and emphasizing the one she was comparing.

When she finished, she asked if this was the way real dictionaries sort their words. When I told she had figured out exactly the same way, she was elated! Then we looked up a handful of words in the dictionary and we both were very proud of her accomplishment.

Afterwards, she was so enthusiastic about the activity that she put all the words into a baggie and labeled it “Dictionary Game by {her initials} and Dad” so she could play it again. I suggested that each time she play, she add one new word to the mix.

What a privilege it was for me to spend this time helping my daughter think of her own way to do something, realize that others had already done it that way (confirmation of her thinking), then use this knowledge in a practical way!!