it's rhyme time.

i was helping one of my students think of "short-u" rhyming words (truck, muck; up, pup; suds, buds...) and we got to the word "drum". i said, "(name), what's a good rhyming word for drum? remember, we need to keep the "uh-uh-uh-uhhm" sound" (said student previously tried to rhyme "kangaroo" with "airplane", so i was feeling a little nervous.

the student took a moment to think. the student closed his/her eyes for a second and opened them only to look up at the alphabet on the ceiling. he/she then pointed to the letter "b" and slowly mouthed out "buh-uh-uh-uhhhm. bum."

i let the student spell "bum" next to "drum". i'm not trying to encourage potty-mouth but he/she clearly knew the word prior to working on his/her rhyming sheet. i was also thankful that this particular student was beginning to grasp the idea of matching rhymes together. airplanes and kangaroos might sit together well in a creative, fictitious story, it's incredibly hard to figure out where the two words made a rhyme in the head of my student.

i could have suggested "hum", "mum", "thumb" (and give a warning for silent "b") or a variety of other choices. instead, i felt that if i were to oppress this child's offer of a perfectly correct rhyme (with a politically incorrect word) i might give this student the idea that his/her ideas were not worth noting even if they fit the criteria asked for. "bum" was the word-sacrifice my nagging work-and-school-friendly conscious had to make.

what would you have done?