Following M, or trying to

The next Swallows and Amazons book has not come in at the library yet: so M and I have been reading shorter books, and magazines.  When he chooses books, they tend to be non-fiction.  We’ve been on a hippo jag, but he also re-discovered the Stuart J. Murphy math books.  Even Swallows and Amazons have a realistic flavor – even if 1940’s fictional children had a bit more freedom than 2010 children do.

Today we will not have much kitchen table time.  Our insurance agent is coming over at 7PM, so I have to have the apartment presentable, and I won’t be able to do my grocery shopping after dinner either.  K got up at 5:30, M at 6, so as I cleared the dishes at 7, I decided, let’s get the spelling dictation in.  Oh the agony of spelling dictation.

M gave me the deer in the headlights look again when I asked him how many syllables his word had.  The his pen went flying.  I handed him another one and decided to re-explain what vowels and consonants are, because the definition of a syllable as “the number of times you chin drops in a word.” was making him look like a panicked deer in the headlights, and “you know when you are singing…” made him look like an angry, panicked deer in the headlights.  Think concrete Chris, no metaphors…but I think in metaphors…deep breath…M, the number of syllables is the number of vowel sounds in a word (though L can sort of slip in too…)

I don’t know if he got it, but he relaxed a bit, Mom was concrete and non-fiction for once.  So, did my accommodation make things all smooth and cheery?

By the forth word, M was making wincing faces, and K was crying too, she couldn’t reach her dolly, and Mom was paying attention to M.

“M, what is it?” I asked.

“My finger sides hurt.”

“Tell your fingers that we will rub cuticle cream in them once we are done with the last word.”

He did.

How I long for linearity.

But we did get dictation done.

2 Replies to “Following M, or trying to”

    • The library didn’t have secret water, so we are waiting for Great Northern. Missie Lee was a bit too exotic for M’s tastes – not that he didn’t want to hear the ending of course. I think the big 6 was his favorite so far. Are you getting my sort of comments on your blog?