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My 5-year-old is beginning to understand the days of the week and - though I wish she'd pay as much attention to tying her shoes, properly - some people may be surprised to learn that she's only in kindergarten and already knows how to identify and spell the very difficult combination of consonants and silent letters in Wednesday.

Because she learned it from her 8-year-old brother, who found it very difficult to spell - until daddy tried to explain.

"Those are one of those tricky words that you don't spell like they sound."

His grandfather would be quick to agree.

"Makes no sense at all!"

My father speaks Hungarian and - as you may have figured out, already - his early experiences of commanding the English language didn't come easily. However - when it comes to saying one thing and meaning another - he is very clear on one point.

"Being able to spell the word stupid doesn't make a person smart!"

Trust me, I know - speaking two languages and growing up with logic like that does has it's advantages - Hungarian is much easier, phonetically speaking. My grandmother was able to teach me to read and write Hungarian long before I graduated high school with barely a passing grade in English.

So, I've learned a few tricks.

"Do you want to know how mommy remembers to spell Wednesday?"

My husband eyes go wide, with reason - he knows my father.

"Just break the word down into little pieces - wed, nes, day."

Perhaps I'm not the best example - in our house, we pronounce it Wednezday - but, I believe my children are very lucky to have grandparents more than willing to help expose them to a different language and culture. As for the rest...well...there's plenty of on-line help and websites they can visit - like Scholastic's (yep, the book fair favorite) activities page - and, you know, perhaps even I can learn to clean up my grammar.