Just got this note from my son’s language arts teacher:
Total Reader is a weekly online reading assignment. He has finished all of the possible assignments (one of his best buddies has as well). This is an advanced class and this teacher is kind of a hardass, so it’s not light praise.
FWIW, he was also 2 for 3 over the weekend with an RBI and a run scored, playing 2nd and 3rd base for his baseball team. He scored the run jumping over the catcher who had the plate blocked but was a little too far away from it. I mention this just to show he’s not just a bookworm. He told me yesterday that Math is his favorite subject (nice teacher) this year.
ETA: he’s in sixth grade and will be 12 next weekend.
Feel free to brag on your children in here, too. I know it’s a common Doper meme.
*C name shortened to protect his innocence.
When the Bubbapup was just a teener he lived for baseball and loved to play first base.
During one game the third baseman bobbled the ball and threw a high fast screamer to first base. The only chance Bubbapup had to catch the ball while maintaining his toe on the base was to extend straight up and onto his toe like a Ballerina.
This stretch made him incredibly vulnerable and the runner, seeing his chance to break up the play and beat up a first basemen, lowered his shoulder and drove straight into Bubbapup’s gut at full speed.
Then the runner bounced off. Then the runner laid on the ground in fetal position whimpering. Because one fact the 130 pound runner neglected to notice was running into the 6’3" 240 pound 1st Baseman who also moonlights as the high school’s offensive tackle is never a good idea.
Bubbapup rubbed his belly. The runner was helped off the field. He was out. The throw beat him by a half second and the Bubbapup toe never left the bag.
Not sure this is really anything to brag about, but the most significant thing going on lately with my kids is when my oldest was home over the weekend she said by x-mas she expected to have an engagement ring. So I guess I’d better start saving up for a wedding!
He’s a nice guy and they seem to care deeply for each other. Has been steadily employed the past few years at a decent job. Is paying off the last of his college debt before buying the ring. She’s finishing classes this spring and will student teach fall semester.
My oldest son is eight and he’s at the top of his class as a reader, too. He’s very imaginative and gets good grades, but he does have some behavior issues at school due to having a hard time following direction/listening/paying attention.
He gets easily distracted and very zeroed in on whatever he’s not supposed to be doing at the moment (inking up his hands, sticking pencils up his nose, etc) that you have to call his name a few times before he’ll snap out of it. I’m beginning to wonder if he’s bored or not being challenged enough.
My four year old is a wrecking ball. My “that’s my boy!” moment came almost a month ago. He was running, being chased by a playmate at daycare, looking behind him at his pursuer when he tripped and fell. He turned to face his fall forward and immediately bashed his mouth into the side of the metal slide on the playground, knocking out one of his two front teeth, root and all. The other front tooth is very loose and turning brown-ish now.
Anyway, the ladies at the daycare center said he didn’t even cry, and that he just seemed more astonished and worried about losing too much blood! They said he told them that he was dying because he was losing all his blood!
He’s fine, its just kinda funny now. I have the toothless wonder-boy until his permanents come in.
I’ll forgo praise for The Littlest Briston for the moment. She’s four years old and scarily bright, but I’m going to pass on the bragging to relate a story not 10 minutes old.
A neighbor just dropped off a box of doughnuts as a “welcome to the neighborhood” gift. We chatted for a moment, but she had to leave right away. I brought them upstairs and asked TLB if she would like one.
“Yes please!”
She’s good with the manners like that. So I asked her what kind she would like. I told her there was chocolate, there were ones with sprinkles, there was plain, there was…
“Ooo! Plain! I want a plain one! Can I have a plain doughnut daddy? Can I? Can I?”
Errr…sure. She’s funny like that sometime. Hell, I’ve seen her pick a plate of carrots instead of cake, so this wasn’t really a big shock.
I handed her the doughnut, and she got a forlorn look in her eyes. She looked up at me sadly and said "But daddy…this isn’t an airplane doughnut".
Maggenkid has been picked by her new school principal to review books for inclusion in the school library - the senior books for college age kids (up to 18). Nice, since m’kid just started at the school and hasn’t quite turned eleven yet.
Mind you, they had to stop testing her reading level at the last school, because their tests didn’t go any higher (16 y/o). She’s also doing maths two years above her class, since they can’t teach any higher than that (though they’re researching options - love this new school).
FoisGrasIsEvil, m’kid was having similar (not acting out, but very distractable) issues and I got her into a gifted programme, one day a week there meant she stayed utterly focussed through the rest of the week. YMMV.
**Baby From Mars **can roll over now in both directions, and last night slept from 7pm to 7am. She’s 3 months, not a lot else to brag about at the moment!
OP, you might want to check your little league rule book. Jumping over the catcher is illegal in many leagues, for safety reasons. He might have gotten away with one and didn’t realize it.
You offered her a plain donut, but she wanted a plane donut. Duh.
Or did you already get that, but didn’t know what a “plane donut” would be?
He doesn’t play Little League[sup]TM[/sup], he plays PONY. PONY isn’t as sissified. The funny thing was, it really wasn’t much of a jump (and sort of balletic like BubbaDog’s boy) but he barely got off the ground. Safer than stepping on him. Amazing that the kid didn’t reach up and tag him, but I think he was too surprised. Some of the parents even teased him if he’d ever done ballet.
#1 Simmerson is 9 and can name all the Presidents (of the US) in order, most, if not all, of their vice presidents, most, if not al, of their first ladies, and all of the Presidential Pets. He knows many of their most famous speeches, which parties they belonged to, and miles of trivia relating to the Presidency. It is possible to stump him, but you have to really try. Most people don’t have the patience.
