I thought it would be fun to share some of those funny/cute/incredible situations that only happen in EL families (and generally get you weird looks from other non-EL people) :laugh:
I know I don’t have anyone else to share them with lol (though I realised trying to think of examples that EL is so normal in our home that I don’t notice so much what is “advanced” - don’t all 3 year olds have maths textbooks )
My DS (age3) had a sore throat and told me “I need some medicine to fight the bacteria and help my white blood cells”
He also participated in a lengthy discussion about the digestive system this afternoon
That’s so cute! I like this thread and hope more people will share stories.
One of the things that my husband and I have noticed that is different in our home is how we do scripture study. The scriptures are still over their heads as far as grasping the concepts, but they each read a verse every night because we want to establish that habit as a family. Anyway, it’s been funny to see how their little minds work. My 3-year-old points out when words match, especially if its a new word like “Isrealite”. Look, they are the same! She also stops to define words she knows. She stopped at “saved” the other day and said that Link saves Zelda. Um, okay, yes, that is what saved means. lol. My 2-year-old is starting to have the attention span to get through a verse if it is short, but he will usually skip around reading a bunch of sight-words, throwing in words here and there like “God” and “Temple”. He likes to take a long turn. We only read five verses but sometimes it takes forever and my husband and I get a little frustrated because while we are pleased with their progress, we are also still human and want to go to bed. :wub: In the end the thing that helps us remember what it’s all about is when our 5-year-old reads his verse with inflection and understanding. It’s worth it!
This one happened a while back, a month or two before Big Girl A’s second birthday. We’d just started reading Magic Tree House chapter books. I was nursing Baby S and Big Girl was playing in the room, getting books out of my bookcase of Young Adult novels that’s stored in the baby room (yes, we have too many books, I know). She brought me a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I started reading, figuring that she’d get bored fast. I read about Lucy walking through the wardrobe (explaining that it meant closet) into the snow and meeting Mr Tumnus carrying parcels (explaining that that meant boxes or bags of things). She was playing on the floor as I read and I didn’t know if she was listening.
Then she stood up and told me to look. She’d put bags over her feet and told me, “A is wearing boots so she can go in the snow!” Then she held up a box and said, “A has only one parcel, not like Mr Tumnus.”
I was blown away. She’d completely understood and was acting it out! And she wasn’t even 2! I love EL.
I took my son swimming today (inspired by Pokerdad to get going) and he had an absolute blast, refused to get out of the pool. Any way he had on arm discs and was really trying hard to swim after his lesson (during which he impressed the swimming instructor and other moms ), we saw this little girl with no arm bands jumping into the water gleefully and I pointed out to him that she didn’t have any arm bands on. I was in the middle of praising this young girl (almost three yrs old) to her and her mom, when Douglas started chanting “Effort! Effort! Effort!” while smiling and swimming hard. The mom and I burst into laughter and she said, “yes, well at least you’re making a big effort.” I couldn’t have been any prouder! I’ve worked hard to develop Carol Dweck’s growth mindset in my son, and I saw today that he got it! lol
Awesome, gotta teach my kids to chant effort too!
My girls spent the week in a holiday sports program. At pickup time today a coach hunted me down. " are these your kids?"
Yep
" they are amazing, just…"
Yep pretty incredible arnt they
“you must have had them in athletics for years, they are just so incredible”.
Actually no we did it for 2 weeks and decided it was a waste of their time ( laughing)
" well something is working, I don’t see skills like that very often, its in every activity, they shine in every skill we try!"
Thank you they do train hard in their chosen sports gymnastics and taekwondo, and I am sure you have noticed they put 110%ievery time.
" yes they are full on"
(laughing) I have been trying to teach them not to be so full on all week and how to pace themselves.
" well they don’t seem to need to, please send them again, it was a pleasure having them here"
yep they’ll be back with their brother! ( laughing)
Nice to hear it from a stranger, after a while of winning everything you tend to forget… :yes:
I’ve had to be off work this morning as DD aged 3.5 had a sore tummy. I’ve been trying to do some phonecalls from home but she’s obviously feeling much better and quickly got bored with lying on the sofa watching a DVD. She obviously starts thinking of ways to get me to come and interact with her…
“Mummy, I’m feeling better. Can we do Rightstart with cheerios please?”!!!
I go down and the abacus is lined up and ready to go!!
Well, she obviously knows which buttons to press - how could I resist that request?!?! lol lol
Only in an EL home… when a 2-year-old toddler has a tantrum because he wants to do more Rightstart math instead of having dinner. Yes, a true tantrum including throwing himself on the floor screaming: IIIII WAAAAANT TO DO MOOOOOOORE EQUATIOOOOOOONS!
Only in an EL home… when he asks for more books before bedtime although he’d already spent about 50 minutes reading tons of other books. He will be a bit disappointed when Mom says “no”. After some “boo-hoo-ing” and good night kisses, he will try to put himself to sleep talking about amphibians he read about in his favorite E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A :happy:
Afteri hiding in a great hiding place while playing hide and seek for over 20 minutes James decided to flush me out by telling me that he was going to show people his penis. He knows that it is private. But I knew it was an empty threat because it was only James and I at home.
He changed tactic and started to say he was going to do something naughty. He preceded to wash the bread in the bathroom sink. And he flushed me out of my hiding spot. Little stinker.
Another time when I went to make toast I found the bread all mashed up. James to.d me he was checking to see if it really was solid matter.
I have had many requests for ‘airplane maths’ - we use transport counters and he’s got airplanes to make his pattern for Saxon this month
We did have an incident when he was sounding out the letters in the obscene graffiti we had to walk past on the way to playgroup. Fortunately this was before he could blend the letters so it was more and ‘f says ffffffffff, u says uh’
Nikki still doesn’t get hide and seek - he hides well but giggles so loudly when anyone comes near that it completely ruins it :rolleyes:
At my son’s preschool they devote a week to each alphabet letter. DS knows the alphabet and his teacher knows that. She noted that DS was deltiberatly saying the wrong letter, she went through the alphabet and he laughed at getting the letters wrong. At home I decided to find out what was going on. As it turns out DS did not forget the alphabet he was having fun, his way. With me he took the letter W and said it was M, P was b, C a broked O, Z was N.
Well, she obviously knows which buttons to press - how could I resist that request?!?!
lol Yep, they know how to do that. I walk in to some big mess and they smile and say, "Mommy, look at our science experiment!"
On the flip side to all of these stories, only in an EL home do you have a kid who can read chapter books want to show visitors how they can sing their ABCs. :dry:
At almost 27months a wail went up when Daddy cut the muffin in half. “Nooooooooooooo… quarters for four peeeeeeeee-pel.”
Not sure who the other 3 people were since he proceeded to devour the entire thing himself.
Tonight we had pizza at the mall; this little guy has to sit on my knee so he can see over the table. He wanted the crust of my slice of pizza… no it’s mummy’s pizza.
“Half?” with a raised eyebrow he says.
No it’s Mummy’s slice, you already had lots.
“Quarter?” with a big grin…
That’s after singing a fraction song a few times. Wish I knew more songs about quantum physics that go to the tune of “Oh Susanna” or Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.
I love how I got woken up yesterday, only in a EL home all right.
We normally do LR or LM while having breakfast in the morning, yesterday my 20 month old tried to wake me up by saying “words, words…, wake up mum, words”
Love it!!
lol Those are the moment when I think, “Yeah, I’m doing it ‘right’.” lol
Had a couple of my own “moments” at the zoo a few weeks back. The best one was when a group of elem school kids were arguing over the name of an animal (before their teacher read the sign to them). Most agreed it was a zebra, a couple thought it was a horse & one was certain it was some kind of “freaky dog”. Nearly died of mommy happiness when my two year old stood up in his stroller, pointed & yelled (with the excitement only a toddler can muster) “Ooh, ooh! Okapi!” :biggrin:
My two and a half year old was playing with her toys the other day while I cleaned out her closet. She was singing to herself and I wasn’t listening until she said, “Isn’t that silly, Mommy?”
I turned to look and she had all her Afrian animals lined up in the Pacific Ocean on her big world map that’s on her floor. I said, “What’s silly?”
“This zebra was singing a silly song. He said the water’s not salty.”
I don’t particularly remember teaching her that oeans were salty. We talked a lot about maps three or four months ago and I must have mentioned it, but I’d forgotten. But she obviously remembered!
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