30 glorious minutes

At taekwondo tonight, Alex received a "home task sheet" from the master, and wow, was that a motivator. It's a simple checksheet with things like, "Completed homework," "Took a bath," "Cleaned room," "Kept hands and nails clean and cut," etc. So this evening after getting Emma fed and ready for bed, I let her play on the floor

(sidenote: SHE'S CRAWLING! Sort of. It's the cutest thing - she digs her toes into the floor and pushes her butt up in the air, launches her face into the floor and wiggles forward. I laugh. Hard.)

and while she was playing Alex and I went through each. and. every. item. on the home task sheet. It took him at least 30 minutes, but all I had to do was say, "OK, Alex, the next thing is _________" and off he would go. He was so excited to check off that little box - I got him to hang his uniform, pick up his toys, MAKE HIS BED (holy crap, he's actually pretty good at it too), take out the garbage, clean his ears, wash his face, blah blah blah...all without a SINGLE ARGUMENT. And when we were done, since he doesn't get "homework" or have to do "studying" (what 4 year old does?) we did his BOB books and called it studying.

BOB books are simple 2-letter books that help to teach the alphabet. He has the first 5 memorized. Yes, that's 5 WHOLE BOOKS, and granted, each one is only ten pages with about 5 sentences total, but he has them all memorized. So I go through and point to each letter, say the name, the sound, and the word underneath it, he repeats it, and then he tells me the next 2 sentences, lather rinse repeat.

He has always LOVED his BOB books, but especially so since one day a couple of weeks ago when he did the most amazing thing. We got to the second letter in one of the books and he couldn't remember what it was, so (and those of you who work with me, you especially will appreciate this) he:
1. grabbed the book from my hand,
2. TURNED IT TO THE FRONT so he could see the title,
3. said, "The C-D Book,"
4. TURNED IT BACK TO THE PAGE HE WAS ON(!)
5. and said, "D! D, duh, dog!"

Now, really, it doesn't sound all that spectacular, but when you work in education (at least where I work) you begin to appreciate the little things. And when your 4 year old CHECKS HIS UNDERSTANDING, it's a BIG DEAL. I have 5th graders who don't do that!

For you non-education types, the reason this is such a big deal is because comprehension is based on being able to look back in the passage and clarify your understanding. Adults do that naturally - we've been doing it for years, we take it for granted. But the hard part is getting kids to do it, and it's a large part of what I work so hard for every. single. day. I can't tell you how many times throughout the day that I say, "Did you find your evidence in the selection?," or "Which part of the story told you that?" or "Knock it off." (That last one is just a regular occurrence unrelated to comprehension.)

Anyway, the fact that I work so hard for that at school and came home one night to find that my AMAZING WONDERFUL ALL KINDS OF SMUSHYNESS HAPPYFACE son is doing this ALL BY HIMSELF (wow, I've used a lot of caps in this post) was a HUGE FREAKING DEAL (there I go again) so I made a HUGE FREAKING DEAL out of it. I squealed, I shrieked, I yelled, "YOU CHECKED YOUR UNDERSTANDING!" I kissed him, I squeezed him, I sent him running out to tell Daddy, I yelled some more. (See, I tend to reinforce it when kids do things they're supposed to do. But only a little. Wouldn't want to overdo it.)

So, long story long (another bad habit of mine), we had a glorious 30 minutes together tonight, capped off by a round of BOB books that he was very excited to read. He earned 3 stickers at TKD tonight, did a lot of great stuff when he got home, and we read books together while Emma shoved her face into the floor.

It was a good day.