Why y?

N and I have been going over vowels. AEIOU, sometimes Y. My evil plan is to get her to start putting an "e" at the end of long-vowel-sounding words, not so much like "permeate" at the moment, but a tad simpler, like "lame," as in, this post. "See, f-a-d is pronounced fad, while if you put an e after the consonant after the a you pronounce it fade."

Forget that the kid just learned what "vowel" means, and the only reason I think she remembers that is because I told her Sarah Vowel plays Violet in "The Incredibles." Consonant? Isn't that the name of that new girl in class? Well, at least she seems to understand that a consonant is any letter other than A, E, I, O or U, and I find that promising.

Yet, what about sometimes Y? I must have missed that bit about why "sometimes" in first grade, or whenever they teach you about vowels. Now that I am teaching someone about them, I need to get to the elusive bottom of this Y thing. Is there ever an instance where Y is not a vowel? Is there some exclusivity rule about vowels, where Y can't be treated like a vowel, as if it's some dissed junior high school girl who didn't read the memo about only wearing green tights on Tuesdays instead of on Thursdays? My memory fads in my old ag, I remember nothing of this Y rule. I remember the vowels by repeating the old adage "A E I O U, and sometimes Y" just like how I blither on in that poem to remember how many days are in the month of November.

Dammit, Jim, I'm a scientist, not an editor.

So, since I'm inclined to include Y in all my parties, I've made the bold decision to simply include Y in my list of vowels for my kindergartner. She can learn to banish it to the loser consonant clique on her own time.