I'm not making it up when I mutter, I can't remember how to spell that.

Watch these adults basically say the same thing... we all use tricks to help us spell words that we find difficult.

I still use the one collar method, but for me it's two socks.

Look at the words you ask me to spell this week, and make up a rhyme, visual clue, or little trick to help you remember them for next time.

Can you figure out a spelling rhyme for the ight in bright fight might light flight.

Is anyone learning a new word a day from the dictionary yet?

Liverpool caught our eye this week, mostly because for a split second we were trying to understand a 1950s photograph of the Mersey as the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.

So let's read an extract from Helen Forrester's Twopence to Cross the Mersey, set in the 1930s.

This piece is about the theft of milk, and the response of a young policeman to the incident.

Your responses, please.

Then check out what Helen Forrester books are in the library.

Look and listen to Liverpool.

Think about how Liverpool and Hong Kong are really not so very far apart! And let's put it on the list of must-visit places in the UK.

Please note, my dear children, I am absolutely terrified about going there. No-one can say anything bad about the place (unless you live there). And you certainly can't say it looks like the last tribal land of England. Except Cornwall. That looks a bit tribal too. And Norfolk. Maybe Somerset. Newcastle? Ahem. Discuss.

How many different ideas can one word hold?!

Try looking at the word tack.

Choose a word that has multiple definitions, or that can be used in many ways. Try using it in as many different sentences so that it carries many different ideas.

That should keep you busy for the next 70 years or so.


(Meanwhile, because I haven't got the poetry book shelves with me, would you all mind if I asked you to be quiet now, so I can listen to some spoken poetry? You can listen if you want.)

This week Shark asked about etymology. Go on a hunt through dictionaries, libraries, the internet, other people's brains, and see if you can find an etymology for any words you like the sound of, or any of these lovely and useful words:

education, tournament, feisty, home, field, daffodil, autumn, electricity, objection, ordinary.

The BBC writes a history of the word disgust. What's your thinking about this word?

Here's an online place to help you spin some stories. And here's a phrase dictionary.

In other word wanderings, I came across two online word game areas this week.

Here and here.

I haven't tried them all; some were mildly amusing and some were quite annoying. Try some. If you can't find any word games you like, invent your own.