How many lower case letters are in the alphabet?

WRONG! That's what I thought too! But, NOPE!

It's report card time and my wife received them when the kids brought them home the other day. She had already had a chance to digest them before I got home. I asked how they were and she said that they were really good, but...

Then she asked me how many lowercase letters are in the alphabet. I thought this was a trick question. We've both joked about falling behind my 5th grader already and having trouble helping her with homework, but surely I knew the answer to this one... I replied 26 with a bit of trepidation.

Apparently... There are 28. The "a" and "g" get special cousins included now as well. And I was just getting used to the idea of "New math" -- though I still don't know what it means.

The "a" can be made as a circle with a line down the right side (that's one), and it's cousin is drawn with a hat on top (that counts as a second). The normal "g" was a circle on top and a curved line down the right side with a tail off to teh left. Its cousin (now apparently an official part of the Letter family tree) looks like a circle on top with a slightly squished and offset circle underneath.

I've given up playing "Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?" I already know the answer, but GEEZ. Now even kindergartners have one up on me? That's not right! :-(