I've been moving with the bodies that move to a different sound

[sovay]

I just taught my niece a simple substitution cipher and within ten minutes she had correctly deciphered a short message I had written to her. I could watch her make the connections, exclaiming as she recognized individual encrypted letters without having to refer to the key. Then she drew a picture at the bottom of the page to make it clear she had not just copied out but understood. Morse code, Playfair, one-time pads, here we come.

Comments

[nineweaving]

How absolutely wonderful! May I recommend the bi-literal cipher?

Nine

[sovay]

May I recommend the bi-literal cipher?

She was already suggesting combinations instead of one-for-one substitutions, so she may take to it!

She figured out her own ciphered name from the first three letters and then seeing two of the same letters—still encrypted—later on in the word. By the end of the message, she knew it ended with my name even before she deciphered it because of context. It was like I could watch her working out the first principles of cryptanalysis in front of my eyes. I told her that it is not the only thing I love her for, but she should know that she is really, really smart.