Finally, in the second half of January, we got some measurable snow! JediBoy was so excited to see the inch and a half covering the ground this morning. He wanted to make a snowman right away… but settled for snow angels and snowballs and tracking in the snow (Woozles!). So we had a very nice Snow Day.
Later, we had one of those perfect strewing moments. I was moving a few things around on his shelf-of-schoolish-stuff, just to remind myself what we had and think about new and interesting things to suggest when he comes to me for ideas, and I happened to leave some of the stuff strewn across the playroom couch while I came back into the office to look something up. Five minutes later, it was, “Mom, can I play with this?” and then he was using the Handwriting Without Tears dough with a plastic knife to make various animals, and then foods, next he was using the magnetic screen to draw pictures and then the slate and chalk to write letters and draw pictures “from Tad” (of LeapFrog video fame). He had a great time.
When he asked for something to do later, I offered him my latest purchase from our local parent/teacher store - volume 8 of Draw Write Now, which features animals from Africa, one of his current interests. We each worked on our own version of a giraffe - just as challenging for me as for him, since I’ve always been the one in our family who “can’t draw.” (Better worded as “doesn’t draw enough.”)
When we went out to dinner, we ran into JediBoy’s Uncle J, as well as two other friends. And so we had a very nice, if unexpected, dinner with friends. After we were done eating, I was telling Uncle J how JediBoy had been emailing his Pappy, and that in the latest email exchange (in which they often brag about who is smarter or has the bigger brain) Pappy had asked, “If you’re so smart, what is 1+2?” When I read this to JediBoy this morning, he sighed and said, “Oh, Pappy! Three.”
So Uncle J said, “Well, if you’re that smart, what is 2 times 3?” JediBoy shut his eyes and said, “Let me think.” A long moment passed, and then he opened his eyes and said “Six.” We all clapped, Uncle J tipped his hat, and we had one of those jaw-dropping moments. How did he learn how to do this? How does he know what “2 times 3″ even means, let alone how to figure it out? This one I can’t blame on Starfall…
When our jaws were back in their upright positions, Uncle J said, “Okay then, what is 3 times 3?” JediBoy closed his eyes again, for a much briefer moment, then opened his eyes and said, “Nine.” Wow!
What does the eye-closing thing tell me about how he thinks, how he figures things out? Is he picturing the numbers in his head, or a set of dots to count, or something completely different?
JediBoy went on to correctly answer 2×10, 3×10 and 4×10, but was stumped at 5×2 until Uncle J said, “Well then, what is 2×5?” to which JediBoy immediately answered “Oh! Ten!” After that, though, he lost interest as Uncle J tried to talk him through 5×20.
Now it’s off to bed with him, so he can be up early for his soccer game tomorrow. I’ve given him a five-minute warning to be ready to put his big art set and Star Wars coloring book away… then off to bed with me too!
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