I have four children: two girls Prima, 17, Secunda 13, and two boys Tetro 10 and Quatro 7. Quatro decided to sit in my lap while I wrote the daily blog.
“Quatro, what happened today at school?”
“It’s really hard to explain.” Quatro sighs deeply and looks at the computer screen, “What are those numbers that keep changing at the top of your screen?”
“I don’t know. Can you tell me what happened at school today?”
“I said it is hard to explain.” Quatro sighs again, “Mom, can I play the math computer game on your computer.”
“I said it is hard to explain.” Quatro sighs again, “Mom, can I play the math computer game on your computer.”
“No, not until you tell me what happened today at school.”
“Ugh! Mom, I TOLD you it is really hard to explain! I don’t even know how to say it!”
Silence
“O.K. – just tell me what happened first. Did your day start out alright? Can you read what I wrote?”
“I can’t seem to figure out that last word.”
“I meant to write: all right. So did your day start out well?”
Quatro slides off my lap to go watch the movie trailer his dad is watching. It is “The Fighter.” Daddy will be watching it this evening after going to a jazz concert our friend's son-in-law is playing. The movie was recommended by a friend. Quatro climbs back into my lap.
“In P.E. I was with Emily and Makayla. Makayla accidentally hit Grace with an ice pack right here.” Quatro puts his left had over his left eyebrow. “Makayla was going to return the ice packs and...”
Daddy chimes in, “What were you craving from the grocery store my love?”
“A Clementine Izzy,” I answer
Quatro continues, “I said: and when Makayla gotten back to P.E. she had her necklace caught and it got broken, and it was very special”
“The one you gave her?”
“No but that one got broken when it got into the dryer.”
“O.K.”
“Then Makayla started crying and I was trying calm her down and when we got back to class Ms. Hannon said one of the teachers is a jewelry fixer.”
“Um hm”
“And maybe at Friday Fun Time we could go to the jewelry fixer teacher. But I forgot the teacher’s name.”
“That’s O.K.”
“And she stopped crying.” Quatro pauses, “That’s all I could tell you. All the other ones are way too hard to explain.”
Daddy chimes in again,“My Love, don’t close this window on my computer while I’m out; I’ve got a movie downloading.”
“So, Quatro, what happened when you were sent to the office?”
“UGH! Please…I don’t want to tell you that. Mom, this is way to hard to explain!”
Silence
“Well, what book was your group reading today?”
“Arthur’s Eyes.”
“Did you like that story?”
“Not that much.”
“Why didn’t you want to write answers to questions about the story?”
“Ugh! I have no idea." Quatro thinks a moment, "Mom, you want to know what I wrote about? I wrote about our tornado in Connecticut. Now can I play a math game on your website on your computer? Can I? Mom, just answer me.”
“Not yet. I still want to know why you had to go to the office to finish your writing?”
“If I only had one wife, I’d want her to be a lot like you!” Daddy says as he leaves for the jazz concert.
“Mom, why’d you write that?”
“That’s what Daddy said.”
“Mom, don’t write that down! Mom, just let me play a math game on your computer.”
“I need you to tell me why you went to the office.”
Quatro starts typing on my computer.‘’’’’ ‘’’’ “Mom, how do you make those little curvy things on the top?”
“You push down the shift, and while you are holding it down you push the quote mark button, like this.”
“”””””” “Oh.”
“So why did you have to go to the office?”
“I had to finish some work.”
“Why did you have to do it in the office?”
“I don’t know.” Quatro sighs, “I wanted to go home.”
“Why did you want to go home?”
“School was boring. I wanted to go home.” Quatro sits up on my lap, “Can I play a computer game now?”
“First you have to write me something that is not boring.”
Quatro writes: playing
“Now can I play a computer game?”
“First you have to write me two sentences that are not boring.”
Quatro writes: ruing a round playing gams with my bruthr
“Wait,” Quatro says, “you forgot the e at the end!”
“So did you.”
Quatro rewrites: running around playing games with my brother
“They still aren’t sentences, I don’ know who is running and who is playing.”
Quatro writes: Quatro likes running around. Quatro likes playing with his brother.
“See, can squeeze the words in right there. Now can I play?”
“Did you eat dinner?”
“We ate a lot of samples at Cosco. I ate some meat," Quatro looks at me very seriously, "It was a lot of protein.”
“O.K.”
“Yeah!”
“But just for twenty minutes. O.K.?”
“O.K. Mommy.”
We celebrate the delightful ways of a child! And the utter patience of mothers! When you know that what you write makes such a clear picture, you know that you have it captured. It put a big smile on my face the whole time.
ReplyDeleteI was so intrigued by this conversation and love that you wrote it down as it happened. Sort of like eavesdropping. :)
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