Logic

Here's the math problem.

Kate is stringing a necklace with 9 beads. She wants to string the same color for the first and 9th bead. Another color for the 2nd and 8th bead and so on. Will there ever be 2 beads of the same color next to each other on the necklace? How did you figure this out?
I believe the exercise was to discover that 9 is not a multiple of 2 and therefore there could be no beads next to each other.

However firstborn looks at things a little deeper.

He kept telling me that there would be two together. So I asked him which two.

His response, beads 1 and 9.

It took me a minute to figure out that he had already tied the necklace ends together in his mind. I mean after all, it's a necklace. You will tie it together in the end, right? And when you do, there will be bead 1 and bead 9 right next to each other. She didn't say anything about the knot in the middle.

I told him to put down both answers.

Tales from the mini-van

It seems like we will go for weeks without a funny story. Then all of a sudden, there's material everywhere. The mini-van commute from place to place seems to be the most fertile ground. Of course, I seem to get the best quotes out of Lastborn when he is alone with me. That doesn't happen often now that he is in full time school.

So, today on the trek from his karate class to the church to pick up firstborn for CCD, we had occasion to discuss the reason why he had been dismissed early from Karate. It seems he and T had decided not to wait for their turn to spar and instead to just form a "ring" on the sidelines and begin their own match. Knowing this is not the greatest idea, I called his name. Now earlier that day, I had asked his teacher to please dismiss him if he misbehaved in any way because we are somewhat sick of paying big money to watch our child lie down on the floor or run around the room screaming. On hearing me call his name, she dismissed Lastborn and T. I felt a bit bad for Lastborn as it had been all T's idea. This time. And they had never been told clearly that they couldn't start their own match.

So I was explaining to Lastborn why it was not a good idea to spar when it wasn't his turn. I was also explaining that it didn't matter if the whole thing was T's idea. He had to think before he did what other kids suggested.

"I guess I'm just gullible," he said.

I couldn't help but laugh. He really knows what that word means. He got it from the Amanda show. Most of his good lines are quotes from TV shows. That still doesn't diminish their humor. It's all in the timing and this kid has timing of the Swiss variety.

Later, he was telling Firstborn about the experience.

"I don't know," he said. "It just came out of my head like a giant monster!"
"What came out of your head like a giant monster?" I asked.
"The idea of fighting with T."

I'm sure he got that from a TV show somewhere too, but to apply it to the idea of sparring with T. That's just too much.

Early fashion sense

Went to the mall with firstborn today. As we walked past the maternity shop, I noticed he was paying a lot of attention to the mannequins who were all sporting maternity T-shirts saying SALE in big red letters. Obviously the neatness of it all intrigued him. I wondered if he noticed the little bellies on the headless mannequins, until he said:
"Boy, those shirts sure make them look fat!"

"They're supposed to be pregnant," I replied.

"Oh!" Silence.

I guess he did notice.

Opinions needed

I'm having an issue with my son's teacher. I need your opinions.

My son has a learning disability. He does not understand verbal directions. Additionally, he has some issues with executive function. It is very difficult for him to remain organized. His desk is messy, he doesn't write reminders, he forgets things that need to be done. This is not a recognized diagnosis to the school even though we had a full review by professionals who wrote up a very good diagnosis and explanation.

Here's the problem. She has them write their assignments in a homework log. However, there are two spots on the board where she writes assignments. One area is for the night's assignments, spelling, grammar, math, etc and another spot is where she warns them of upcoming tests, long term assignments (LTAs), etc.

Each day about 1/2 hour before class lets out she tells them to get out their assignment books and write down the night's assignments. She assumes the kids will figure out to look at the long term section of the board and write those down too, but no directions are given to that effect at the time they are given to update the homework log.

So, he never writes down the long-term assignments. As a result, he often loses points on LTAs or does very badly on tests f0r which he did not study.

I met with her in November to explain the problem and to stress how important it was for Firstborn to learn to use his planner. I see the planner as a linchpin to his success in the future. I asked her in writing to please check his assignment book every day and insist that he take the time to correct it before he left for home.

For two days, she wrote the assignment for him. Then she would occasionally check to see that the entries were written neatly (also an issue).

One assignment in his planner for November was to complete a "states project." The date came and he insisted it was not due. I wrote her a note and she told me that it was indeed not due then. No notes to that affect in the book? For weeks, I looked for the "states project" to show up again in the book. Nada.

A week ago, he came home with a note saying that the states project was "missing." He should turn it in on Jan 12th. OK. So we work on the project and he brings it in on the 12th. To be told that he had missed a step and should turn it in the next day when he completed. He turned it in today. It was sent back to us. On the back in red pen was written 100 - 20 for being 20 days late = 80.

I've looked through that planner to find the "States Project" and it does not exist except for that date months ago that turned out to be a fake.

Now I know that missing 20 points for being so late is not a big deal. I know that a B is nothing to complain about. But a B because this teacher is too lazy to teach him a skill his future will depend on is just infuriating to me. It's like refusing to teach a blind child Braille.

And by the way, he does not know that I'm planning on raking her over the coals for this. He never will.

So the questions are:

Do you think I'm being overprotective?
Do you see some other way for him to learn to rely on his planner and develop the skills he needs to organize his life?
Do you see this as a typical developmental stage for a 3rd grade boy and he'll work through it?
How nasty do you think I should be with her?

Thinking outside of the box

remcat, meet Charmaine. Charmaine, meet remcat.

Both good friends of mine who have children who would rather sleep in a box than in a nice soft bed. Seems this affliction cannot be linked to either sex or type of box.

Charmaine, the good news is that remcat's son did grow out of his box sleeping habit. I believe it was sometime after he grew out of the box, but at least his wife won't have to kiss him goodnight just before shutting the lid.

I hope you both have pictures.

Budinskette

Lastborn has an understanding of English that I didn't expect from a 5 year old. Maybe because Firstborn has developed a much stronger understanding of math and engineering and much less of English and conversation.

At 5, as is expected, Lastborn has an understanding of knock-knock jokes and makes up his own. Although his attempts do not result in particularly funny jokes, it is fun to watch him make the attempt. He has already surpassed Firstborn in his ability to create jokes. Perhaps that's the literal bent that Firstborn takes on his world. Being literal can make wordplay difficult. It does make creation of the next supercomputer easy though. So we are not complaining. Suffice it to say that they are very different children and that makes them more surprising and fun to be around. Raising Lastborn is truly a new experience, not a repeat of what we have already done.

All this to say, I was quite surprised by his ability to twist the language yesterday morn. Coming downstairs after my shower, I greeted him with a "hey there, Budinski." Just a nick-name we use around the house when we are joking around. His response??

"Hey there Budinskette!"

Then he went on to tell me that -ette is the ending for a girl, and since I'm a girl, I'm a Budinskette.

Later that day, he chanted the spelling of Mississippi. Remember that 6 months ago, he still couldn't sing his ABCs. He felt that Q-Z were overkill and would jump right from P to Now I know my ABCs. Now he can recognize every letter in a word and his dictionary of readable words is growing every day.

Explotation

Yes, that is the correct spelling.

The other day, Lastborn was playing with his new Lego ExoForce set. He had taken all the robot characters apart and they lay in a pile on the toybox.

"They exploded," he exclaimed! They exploded and they are laying in a pile of explotation.

"Explotation?" I replied. "What's explotation?"

"It's when something explodes and then makes a mess."

"You mean like the toys on the livingroom floor? Is that explotation?"

"No, mom! That's not explotation. Explotation has to be with robots, not toys."

"I don't know, it certainly looks like explotation around here."

"It's not explotation mom. It's just toys all over the floor."

"OK. How about cleaning them up? What would that be called."

"Boring."