Speaking of dinosaurs...

"All of the dinosaurs ran and hid when they saw T-Rex coming, but not triceratops. Triceratops stared at T-Rex. He was not going to let T-Rex scare him."

That is how the story went that Chance read to me yesterday. We had a great discussion about the story and Chance even wrote down a summary of what the story was about. When Chance showed me his writing book, it said: "Triceratops stare T-Rex."

I asked Chance if something was missing in the sentence. He said no. I helped him see that stare should be stared. He then changed stare to stared. Then I asked Chance if something else was missing. He thoughfully, studied his sentence and told me no.

I then asked Chance which sounded right:"Mommy stared at Chance." Or "Mommy stare Chance." Chance said that the second one sounded right.

I explained to Chance that the word "at" needed to be in the sentence to make it sound right. So Chance changed it.

Later at dinner that night, Chance's dad (who had been apprised of the earlier conversation), asked Chance what happened in the story with the dinasaurs. Chance said that Triceratops SCARED T-Rex. Ah hah! We showed Chance that the story said STARED instead of SCARED. Then Chance's dad asked him if he knew what stared meant. Chance said no. So we taught him what stared meant over dinner, partly by playing the staring game (which is hard to win when you wear contacts).

Now, Chance's original sentence makes sense! Triceratops scare T-Rex. Sure it needs a 'd' at the end, but Chance must have been really confused when I had him to add the word"at" to his work!!

Scare and stare do sound awfully alike and both would work in the context of the story.
Apparently, we need to ensure that Chance understands exactly what the word is when he is convinced that he already has it right:)