"Let Me Count the Ways..."

Now that I'm using the Bob Jones University curriculum for phonics for the twins, today I had to ask myself "Seriously, how many ways ARE there to read the "long a" /ā/ sound??"  I never paid this much attention before!  So here are the ways:
1. when "marker e" is at the end of the word, making the first vowel say the long sound, as in "gate"
2. when two vowels are together in a word, the first one does the talking and the second one does the walking, as in "mail"
3. and in today's lesson, it was about the "-ay" ending, as in "way"

I don't know why I had to tell you because you probably already knew.  Duh.  Actually, if you have yet to teach this to your kids, just show them this post and the pic above.  Boom - you're done.  And you're welcome.

I just realized there's another one:
4. "ey" as in "grey"

So props to my twins for being only six years old and deciphering this minutia of the English language.  And props to you if you know what "minutia" means.