Bragging

Yesterday while my brilliant wife took our daughter to a music appreciation class, the boy and I played this board game called "Ticket to Ride," given to me by a BIL. On your turn, you either (1) draw cards or (2) spend cards to lay track. I started laying track almost right away, but I was pleased to see that my son accumulated lots of cards until he was sure he could lay his entire track (one route at a time). I like it that he had his own mind made up and didn't just imitate what the grown-up did. He stuck to his strategy.

Later in the day he and my daughter were drawing with their fingers in the condensation at the front window. When I looked at it, I saw that he had written a message backwards so that people on the street could read it. I took a picture of it and was going to blog that it all looked good, except that he spelled hello as "Hellol." However, when I flipped the picture to check his letter orientations, I saw that the extra "L" was really an exclamation mark.

He's a bright kid, and the daughter girl is too. I'm going to teach her chess this year while she's three.

Recently, I went to the educational supply store and bought the boy some school workbooks in different topics. I grabbed them semi-randomly and looked at the material inside. It turned out that all four books that I bought using this method were for 2nd grade.

I gave him one. Oddly, rather than becoming more rascally -- fixating on the book and refusing to do anything else -- it actually made him more cooperative. He's been doing the reading comprehension exercises, and he says it's easy. So far it looks that way. I told him that if he finishes the 2nd grade ones, I'll get him some 3rd grade workbooks.



Left grip is 19 pounds (17, 17, 19), right grip is 65 pounds (59, 62, 65), and left leg balance is 5.25 seconds.