"Something smells bad, and it's me!"

Yesterday afternoon as I was preparing dinner, A was in the living room playing a game on the Leapster L-Max that he received for Christmas. I popped around the corner to check on him, and he said to me "Something smells bad, and it's me!" I stared at him with a curious look on my face, I am sure and he started giggling. "I farted," he then added. Good grief!

Yesterday he brought home his report card from the second nine week session. Once again, he scored at or above grade level standards in all categories of academic achievement. Hooray! He went backwards in only one category, from working above grade level to working at grade level in phonics, which is not a surprise to me. He struggles a bit with phonics and would rather learn to read the word than learn to sound it out.

A gets frustrated when working on phonics, which is one of the reasons that he got a "needs improvement" in the area of "uses self-control." He also needs improvement in "demonstrating responsibility" but is satisfactory in all other specialty areas. Again, neither of these "needs improvement" areas is a surprise to me and we try to work on them.

The teacher's comments this session were: "A continues to make excellent progress. Keep up the good work. He needs to work on not interrupting when others are speaking." And while this is starting to sound tremendously redundant, the interrupting issue is well-known to us and one we work on constantly. A seems to think he can just start talking whenever he likes, regardless of whether or not someone else is speaking at the time.

I am very pleased with A's report card. Of course he has areas that need improvement but overall he is doing well. He is developing a love of reading and words, and can already do simple math. I try to take every opportunity I can in our daily lives to help him practice math, spelling and reading. Even if he smells bad at the time!

Everything old is funny again

I rented the first disc from the first season of The Muppet Show from Netflix, to see if A would like it. I used to adore The Muppet Show but wondered if a) he is old enough to get it and b) the humor still holds up. I am pleased to say that the answer to both questions is yes!

We have been having a fine time watching the old episodes and laughing. Some of the humor is a bit dated but is, for the most part, still funny. And, yes, some of the "technology" of the Muppets looks a little antiquated from a distance of 30 years but A hasn't noticed one bit. He doesn't get all of the jokes because, let's face it, The Muppet Show was really for adults. But he gets enough of it and just the antics and the look of the Muppets alone is enough to make him laugh.

We were outside yesterday afternoon and A was drawing on the pavement with chalk. He told me to close my eyes, that he was working on a surprise picture for me. To be truthful, I nearly nodded off as I sat there with my closed, enjoying the winter sunshine! But when I was allowed to open my eyes, I was pleased to actually recognized his drawing as Kermit!