At the pumpkin patch. Poor guy was pretty sick but really really wanted to go. Later he told his teacher he didn’t know what a pumpkin was. (huh?) Read for the rest of the story.

Ben is a funny guy. Both boys are very funny in different ways. Sam specializes in physical humor, Ben in verbal wit. His parent teacher conference yesterday is one example. His teacher writes down things he says from time to time (she does for all students) to communicate to parents. When he was asked to help read in a read-along book, he recognized “The” right away and read it. The next word was “cow.” He said “That’s not one of my sight words” and refused to try reading it. His teacher doesn’t know yet that he knows all the letter sounds and could totally sound that out because she also noted that during “zoophonics” time – where the kids act out and say letters, their associated character name and gesture – Ben sits there with his jaw slack, just watching. He doesn’t participate. So she doesn’t really have a good read on what he does or doesn’t know from time to time, even though I shared with her that he’d worked his way through the second level of Fry’s sight words (so about 200 words he can read, and he can sound out pretty well – the word “instinct” the other night, for example). Anyway – Dave and I laughed pretty good at that. It really sounds like Ben!

So tonight I thought I’d just casually find out what the zoophonics characters are from Ben (as a way to see if he knows them and just doesn’t want to engage with the activity for whatever reason). He knows all of them, their names, the letter sounds and the sign/gesture! I asked why Queenie Quail has the little hook sign and he said that is because male quails have that. (But it is a queen quail which is female!) I would be so confused :0

Anyway then I asked something else – like when two letters make a sound together, what is that? I couldn’t remember the term. I said like “ch ch – is that Charlie Choker?” and made a gagging sound. He loved it. I said – so what is that called when two letters make a sound together? Ben said “That’s a biophobatic.” “What? How do you spell that?” I said. (Pause) “B I O F O B A (pause) T I K” he said. Five syllables spelled phonetically. This guy is funny. I asked later – so where did you learn about biophobatics? “Mrs. Pratt. She taught us.” (Mrs. Pratt is the school counselor – there’s no way she said anything like that!)

Do you see what I’m dealing with? We have a big rule in our house about honesty and not lying on big or little things, but he knows the difference here. I really believe he’s just  messing with me and he knows I know. I don’t know how his sweet teacher is going to deal with him this year except for keeping her sense of humor and not believe him if he professes to not know something. He enjoys it when I make things up. Like I asked what a quail was. I said I thought it was a huge balloon and he laughed hard, then corrected me. That is how I get the straight scoop sometimes.

Ben, Ben, Ben. You are so funny!

Two other funnies from a few months ago that I don’t want to forget. We were prompted to ask the boys “Why do zebras have stripes?” So we did over dinner.

Ben first. “Because they are mag-NI-fi-cent!”

Sam. “So that you can tell them apart from other animals. Like donkeys.”

At the pumpkin patch the last time we saw the sun. Well, no, I exaggerate. I think it came out yesterday. But we get about an inch of rain a day it seems! Summer ended with a BANG!

This is an email I sent to Ben’s teacher the other day:

From: Alli Krug
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 8:54 PM

To: Ben’s teacher
Subject: Ben’s tall tales

Hi XXXXXX!

So I was asking Ben how school was going and a few things about his day. I think he spun some yarns. J  Perhaps a T/F quiz would give you a laugh?

1. He reads in a reading group with Eli and Deliah (sp?). They “read as fast as mom.”   T    F  ?
2. All the students do EPGY in the Art Room on Tuesdays, using laptops. He described it all in detail.   T    F  ?
3. He never uses a slate (white board) for number talks on the rainbow rug.   T    F  ?
4. He uses XtraMath – there are smiley faces and a teacher.   T    F   ?

—————

I saw her today and in passing she said: “Um, the answer is false to all of the above, but I wasn’t sure if you were for real or not at first!”

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In other news, poor Sam has a nasty nasty cold and was home with me today. We had to go to a meeting so he was in a district administrator’s office doing some math games on her computer while I met. She had to disinfect afterwards. Isn’t she gracious? Same office that Ben always went to for meetings with me last year. You can draw right on her wall, and she gives out candy when you leave. She’s awesome. But anyway, say some prayers he feels better soon. Also say one or two for Dave who was up all night last night taking calls and then left at 5am this morning for work. A guy in his office already has the flu. Everyone is asleep right now so I am heading there, too. Mom must stay healthy!!!!

There are just so many of them, but this one shared over dinner the other night really made me laugh! This is an excerpt from an email to Mom so I don’t have to retype 🙂

I  heard a very funny story from Sam the other day – apparently another boy and Ben went to the bathroom one morning while I was in with the small group kids doing math. Both boys are always interested in a “field trip” any chance they can get 🙂 Anyway, apparently they were “factoring” in the bathroom with paper towels so loudly that a teacher had to come in and tell them to quiet down! I am partly sorry, and partly very amused that they took the lesson to the bathroom with them. I literally laughed out loud at dinner when Sam told us the story in his low-key way. It took a lot of prompting to figure out what in the world he was talking about!

Ben has been really sick the last week – sinus infection on top of a week of sickness already. Poor guy was exceptionally stuffy with a fever >101 for three days. Such difficulty breathing at night, hard to understand his speech, and lots of sinus washes with saline spray (which I tried to explain was like boogie boarding in Hawai’i – lots of salt water up the nose!). He is doing much better now and I am so grateful. Mommy has had a bit of a stressful week with end-of-school commitments and a sick boy. I am thankful for all the opportunities to contribute to learning at the school and get to know the kids, though. Always glad that I am there and able to help. In any case, last night was the first day without a fever so we had a “Ben is Back” dance party in our living room – me and Ben – while Dave and Sam were out at guitar lesson. I cranked up some Credence and we danced with stuffed snakes on the “workbench” coffee table in the living room. I took movies for Dave as Sam eventually joined in when he got home. It was SO funny, but there were so many near-misses with snakes flying around like lassos that it was a bit nerve-wracking! I feared we would REALLY get in trouble this time! Kids were jumping from workbench to couch and back, and they’re both big now so collisions are much more interesting than they once were! All ended well and I didn’t get in too much trouble. I’ll post the video later…they are rather long!