What am I going to do?

This morning we drove to the pediatrician for flu vaccine (the entire family), and in the car before pulling out of the driveway, Samuel asked a question.

"Mommy, how do you make the van go in reverse? Do you pull back on the steering wheel?"

I answered him, "No, I pull this lever here and put it the gear for reverse. Then I go backward." I was impressed that at 8am he was alert enough to try to figure out HOW I make the car go. Then I was impressed that he had come up with a possible explanation. See, at 8am, I'm impressed that I was awake enough to be able to stick the key in the ignition!

JM, obviously did not think my answer was good enough, replied, "See Samuel, when Mom puts the gear in reverse, which is marked by R on her dash, the gear moves to a specific spot on the drive shaft. This spot determines how the drive shaft turns. For the R spot, it actually turns the drive shaft the opposite way that it does for the drive spots. The drive shaft spins and this rotates the axles that the tires are on. When the drive shaft spins in this way, the tires are rotated going backward. When the drive shaft is in Drive, then it spins the tires forward. When you can read and we go to the science museum I'll show you the exhibit that has all the parts of the car then you can see it for yourself."

yeah...umm...he's 8. What am I going to do?! Obviously he wakes up more alert than anyone I know.

Then, I'm reminded again that he is only 8. He needs to write out his punishment for his homeschool classes - "I will not be disruptive in chapel." 50 times.

I ask again, "What am I going to do?!"

We've been working on multiplication tables with JM, and he has a quiz on Friday evening on the 2-4 tables. Now, randomly throughout the day I'll shout out, "What's 4x6?" JM will sometimes answer, "24!" Or other times "I don't want to do this!!!!" Because this has been going on all week, Samuel has finally picked up on things. Samuel is now randomly shouting out, "JM, what's the number between 50 and 52?" Or He'll say, "JM, what's 15+4?" I've had to explain to Samuel that it is not his place to quiz JM on math problems.

We've also been working on "th" sounds in speech for the past year. Really concentrate on how you say "th" (go on do it). Did you notice that you put your tongue between your teeth? Well, both of the boys did not do this. Ever. They would curl their bottom lip under their top teeth and say it (go on try it...). Yes, it was the "fuh" or the "vuh" sound. JM is probably 99% accurate these days. Samuel, well, we are working on it as it has been age appropriate until now. JM had a spelling test this past week, one we were behind on, and I asked him to spell "fought."

JM spelled it "t-h-o-u-g-h-t."

I had to explain, that no, I did mean the fought as used in a sentence like "I know you fought with your brother over the game today." That if I meant thought I would use a sentence like "I thought you knew that fighting with your brother is forbidden." Don't you like my sentences?!

Without telling him how to correctly spell it, he got it right. I, in testing him the next day for the official test, managed to remember to use the sentences to define the words.

Samuel and his "th" sounds? Well, we finally got him to say "th" correctly by itself. It's not in his everyday speech, but we are working on words by themselves. He can say "thumb" correctly if you remind him, and he's almost go "thinking" down. Although I will miss "finking" a little bit! He's so proud of himself too. Our speech pathologist would be so proud.