Creed can be a pretty funny little guy. He has a great imagination and has a pretty remarkable vocabulary. He even spouted off a "touche" at an appropriate time the other day. Anne Michal spent all of her 13th year trying to do that! (I was so disappointed she wasn't home to witness it!) All of this makes it no surprise that teaching him to read is rather entertaining.
It has been fun(most of the time) teaching him to read. He is actually doing pretty well and excluding today, he stays pretty focused, listens well, and actually looks at the words on the page. I don't find myself telling him that the words aren't on ceiling, or my face, or the back of his hand, or up his nose nearly as much as the other kids.
Another little fact about Creed, however, is that the lazy gene runs strong and deep as we like to say. For example, he was helping my mom put away the silverware and after 2 utensils declared, "I am done. I am tired." This plays out in reading lessons by lots of guessing rather than sounding out words even though he is really good at sounding them out. Today we were sitting on the couch for our lesson and came to the word "Jim." He sees the J and guesses another word he has read before "jet." I tell him it isn't and he immediately takes off with new guesses that was the funniest string of word associations as he totally forgot what he was doing and kept guessing!!! So he says...jet...then jet ski...then ship...then rocket ship. He was so excited and spouted them off with a huge grin on his face. When we finally established that it was "Jim," he asked, "You mean zumba? That is what grandma calls it." I responded with, "Zumba????????" Then it hit me. He was thinking gym, not Jim!
Here is a picture of him with his dad, working on his math, on our bed, while still in his pajamas. Homeschooling at its finest!!! Aren't they cute?
He was wanting my dad to read him a book. My dad had already been reading to him earlier and was a bit hoarse and had told him that his voice couldn't take any more. Dad was watching tv and Creed is kind of standing off to the side. He casually picks up a book and quietly says, "I am pretty sure you can handle this one; it is a short one."
One of the kids' favorite thing to do is play this particular computer game with my mom. They love to climb up on the bed right around bedtime and play it with her. Creed will snuggle all in beside her and "help." He was wanting to play one night and he can pretty much bug anyone to death about anything. I guess he wanted to try a new tactic other than , "Can we play that game tonight?" so he asks, "Have you held that thought, yet?"
PS If you sit all snuggled up beside him teaching him to read, you'll spend a lot of time looking right at him to make sure he is staying focused which means that you will be amazed every day at the cutest little smattering of freckles God ever created spanning the bridge of his nose and spreading out over his cheeks.
