Today is family day. We went to church and I substitute taught the 10-11 year old girls’ class and talked about Jesus the Good Shepherd. They were all pretty shy. But I enjoyed giving the lesson.
After church and lunch 3yo and 1yo went down for a nap. I finished an excellent book called The Glass Castle. (Super good. I read it in two days. I’ll try to post more about it later along with another book I finished recently called I Am a Mother.) Then 6yo and I played Connect Four. I’m really enjoying the fact that he is becoming quite fun to be around. We had fun, had a few laughs and he even won a couple of times.
After choir practice the sleepers woke up, including hubby and we had dinner: Ramen noodles with seasoned tomatoes, chicken chunks and cottage cheese. Can you believe it was quite good? I haven’t had Ramen since college. I’ve always liked them, but they have enriched flour and used to have trans fats. Regression? Maybe, but I’m not worried about it.
We had a family wrestling match that ended when 1yo and hubby bonked heads. I don’t know who was hurt more. We let 1yo hold the cat and he was fine soon and hubby held 1yo. We decided to calm things down and watched part of America’s Funniest Videos. 3yo thinks it is hilarious and it is all worth it just to see him roll with laughter. Then we watched nature. When 3yo got restless then hubby took him to the back yard to check on our garden and to play catch. They came back with a delicious beet. It was tasty, but I’d rather eat them cooked. I’ll have to get some recipes. I wanted hubby to save the greens. When I asked him why he didn’t he said, “I did, they’re right there.” He pointed to the top of the garbage can. What a great place to save them. I had to smile. Such a guy.
A guy in church sat down next to my husband and said, “Is that your son?” He pointed to 6yo. Hubby confirmed. “Is he left-handed?”
“Yes.” Said my husband wondering where this was going. Odd.
“I knew it!” He then went on to say that he worked in some biology field and knew some geniuses and they were all left-handed. My husband said something about our son being pretty bright. The guy corrected him. Telling my husband that is was more than just pretty bright. He said if you just watch him and listen to him it is obvious that he is brilliant. Kind of an interesting conversation – a little flattering, but we both think this man uses the word genius too loosely. We think our son is very smart, but genius and brilliant are strong words. I think it’s too early to tell and I’m not focusing on that right now other than giving him opportunities to expand his horizons. Right now is for 6yo to be a kid. It is a once in a life-time opportunity to be a kid. I want him to have fond memories of growing up so when the storms of life blow him around he can have warm memories to shelter him. (Hopefully he’ll forget the times Mom is really, really tired and out of patience!)
By the way, did I mention that I'm left-handed? ;0
4 comments:
Hi,
As you know, one of our goals is to enrich our lives. In looking at your family picture and reading about your day, I can say most people would agree you have a wonderfully full life.
Regarding intelligence: I think one can get a pretty good idea about intelligence at an early age...spoken vocabulary, math concepts, reading early, and abstract reasoning are all excellent indicators. Your sons have one obvious advantage...you can, and do, focus on enriching their learning environment (workbooks, interaction opportunities that are learning related, quiet time focused on learning that is structured into his day). From the perspective of an educator of 32 years, you are maximizing their learning environment...way to go!
Emily (GatewayDreamer...Lessons, Thoughts, and Dreams)
I love love loved the Glass Castle. Fantastic book.
Your family is adorable!
My most recent job was doing psychological testing, so I took the liberty of testing my son who was by my previous estimation "pretty bright."
I gave him a full battery of IQ, acheivement tests, visual motor, & adaptive. The scores for all came in extremely high, way outside the average range. (He's the same age as your son.) Knowing this information hasn't changed things one iota, so really the testing was pointless. His smile lights up my day just as it always did. His questions throw me off guard, and still receive the best answers I can give, and often lots of research to find the "right" answers that will satisfy him, and we still waited until he's 6 to start kindergarten b/c we feel his emotional development supercedes the intellectual.
My only question is this-if my 5 year old can perform on a "following directions" test at a 3rd grade level, why is it so hard to get him to stop tickling his baby sister? :D
Thanks Emily. All I can really say is that I'm trying. I really appreciate your comments and at times I even save them in my email folder. This is one of them.
Jen, too funny about the tickling little sister. LOL We ought to get the two of them together. They would probably be saying really large words at the same time they tore the house down. :)
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