A little more than a week ago, Ben was impatiently excited about finally going to school, where he'd be starting grade one.
What was he most looking forward to? "I'm going to learn how to write things."
School started on Thursday, so he had a few days to settle in.
[snip tale of long weekend trip to the Golden Horsheshoe, which involved astham attacks, copious vomit, floods of snot and nursing home shenanigans. Another story completely.]
On Tuesday night, McPie and I were driving Ben home from his mom's place -- they have just moved to a new (old) house, and the requisite unpacking and cleaning were wreaking hovoc with Ben's allergies, so we were going to keep at our place a few extra days.
In the car, we asked Ben if he's enjoying grade one, if he's having fun.
"NO! It's boring. [In Ben's lexicon, "boring" can mean anything from the tradition definition to silly, bad, or unpleasant. Just as "smart" can mean either intelligent or "small". Kid has a dynamic approach to English.] We only do baby things."
Baby things?
"Every day we just draw. The first day and then the next day, just more drawing."
So, you're really eager to do the real stuff, like reading?
"Yes! I want to do REAL school."
McPie and I giggle to ourselves. He tells Ben that when we get home, we can work on some words. Ben is enthusiastic.
"Oh-kay! Let's do some DEVOIRS!"
I really wish I could convey the emphasis with which he exclaimed this. The mix of languages in this context was just priceless. McPie and I were beside ourselves.
Every day this week, he's been pestering to do his devoirs. I don't think he actually has homework to do, but boy is he keen to get going with this reading and writing business. We're doing our best, and I have a feeling that he's coming close upon the a-ha! moment.
3 comments:
cute :)
what did you think of divisadero?
do you have the other side of the bridge lined up for when you finish crow lake?
and how's baba doing?
nice. reminds me of something so I'm going to do a little hi-jack. One of my five nieces was struggling with reading (this in the "balloons are ephemeral things" family). At Christmas time she knew Harry Potter was coming out in the summer and she vowed she would be ready to read it. So she read read read the previous HP's and her gr. 1 teacher said her reading improved by leaps and bounds week to week. I saw them a week after it came out -- a family with a HP hard cover each (and strict orders not to tell uncle dorkie how it ends) :-)
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