Teaching a kid to spell: a tutorial

So, my 5-year-old is in preschool, right?  "Pre-K Plus" is what they call his class.  Basically, there are 15 kids in the class and 2 of them are taking it as their actual Kindergarten requirement.  So, he's getting a Kindergarten education a year early.

Sounds great, right?  I thought so.  That's why I signed him up for it (brilliant, aren't I?)!

I love his school.  I love his teacher, I love all the teachers in the school.  I love the school's principles, I love the school's principal.  I just love this school.  He comes home every day, excited to tell me what he's learned.  I mean, he's learned the solar system, fercryinoutloud.  The school is awesome.

Today was no different.  We went out to lunch afterward and, after he told me about how he played basketball in gym, he asked to practice his letters.  I handed over my notebook and pen and off he went.  He practiced his name, he drew some pictures of tornadoes (it's raining here today) and then we played the "Mom, how do you spell..." game.

You know, the English language is dumb.  (Even dumb is spelled wrong.  Why can't it just be dum?  Or do we just pronounce it wrong?  Man, that's dumB.  I'm going to try that for a little while - see where it gets me.  DumBie.)  My 5-year-old knows all his letters and the sounds they make, so spelling should come quite naturally, right?

WRONG.

This is how the conversation went:

Him:  Mom, how do you spell "zebra"?
Me:  Sound it out.  What makes the "zuh" sound?  (I know, I should've been a teacher, mIright?)
Him:  Z?
Me:  Good!  What makes the "eeeee" sound?  (Okay, I practically gave him that one, but whatever.)
Him:  E?
Me:  Great!  What makes the "buh"...

You get the idea.

But then this happened:

Him:  How do you spell "spoon"?
Me:  What makes the "sssss" sound?
Him:  C?
Me:  Well, yes, but very rarely.  It also makes a "kuh" sound.  What else makes the "sssss" sound?
Him:  S?
Me:  Yep!

And then this:

Him:  How do you spell "cup"?
Me:  What makes the "kuh" sound?
Him:  K?
Me:  Well, yes.  What else?  (Read:  I just taught you this a few minutes ago; if you have forgotten, read the above example.  Go on.  Read.)
Him:  C?
Me:  Great!

And THEN this!

Him:  Mom, how do you spell "kite"?
Me:  What makes the "kuh" sound?
Him:  C?

See how damdifficult this is?  Why does his version seem more logical than what's correct?

DumB language.