Hey, parents, trustee here. You know what I hear constantly from homeschool parents in the Who Smarted

community? Thank you for introducing us to IXL. I get it. My cousin homeschools her kids and raves about how much IXL helps.

We're heading into that stretch where families are finishing the year strong and then summer hits with travel, camps, and shifting routines, and that's where Iexel shines.

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That's Iexl.com slash smarted.

Hey there, Smarty Pants.

Welcome to Smarty Q, where I, the trusty narrator, answer questions from you, the Smarty Pants.

Today, we've got insects, electricity, blue raspberries, and more. So let's get into it.

All right, our first question comes from Beckett in Boise, Idaho, who asks,

how did humans invent letters in the alphabet? Great question, smarty pants. Long, long ago,

before alphabets existed, people used pictures to communicate. These pictures were called pictographs,

simple drawings that represented objects or ideas. Then, over time, those pictures

became more simplified and started to represent sounds instead of whole words. This was a big

breakthrough. One of the earliest alphabets was developed by ancient people in the Middle East,

and later the Phoenicians created a system where symbols stood for sounds.

...