You just can't trust those cats, you know

I've been chastised for not updating the blog in a while.

Sorry.

I don't have any super good reasons. Just not feeling it, I guess.


So, I haven't written much about the kids at school. Kind of purposefully, because I don't want this blog to become some kind of measuring stick for the kids' performance in school.

But I have to share this.


Travis has really been excelling, does great at his school work, has aced all his spelling tests, works diligently on his homework. He seems to have outgrown the trouble he had in Kindergarten, where he had a hard time getting focused enough to finish his work during class.

On Fridays, his teacher sends home the work the kids did during the week. Some papers they are graded on, and others are just for practice, and they get a smiley face or a star instead of a grade. His teacher asks that we go through the papers and review any mistakes and errors with the kids.

A few weeks ago, included in the packet of work sent home was a reading comprehension paper. There were various sentences with a word missing, and the kids had to select from a multiple choice selection which word made sense in the sentence.

I was going through it, and noticed that Travis missed one. He hadn't answered the question at all.

I asked him about it.

Travis -- why didn't you answer this question?


Well......"one" is the only one that makes sense.


Yes....that's true. That's the right answer. So why didn't you answer that way?


Well...um....Max is a CAT. So he really can't give hugs.


............



I was a little taken aback. It was clear from the rest of the questions that Max was indeed a cat. And I kind of liked that Travis was doing some critical thinking about the meaning of the sentence beyond just the words. And he clearly knew the right answer.

So I just talked to him about how part of what he is learning in school is the right way to construct sentences, and that a sentence may not always have to be "true" to be a sentence. And that maybe Max gives 'cat hugs' by rubbing against people's legs or something.

He seemed satisfied.


Then, last week, he brought home his weekly stack of paper. In it was the below exercise, where the kids were to write the word that best described the picture, from two given choices.

He missed this one. He wrote "glad".

I'm sorry, but that cat hardly looks upset. We're supposed to just assume he's sad because he is sick? (Or, allegedly sick. I haven't seen any medical test results or doctor's notes or anything.) As Ben said, maybe he's happy because he gets to stay home from school. We have no way of knowing whether this cat just said he was sick so he could lay in bed and eat chicken soup all day, and we all know how much cats love chicken soup.

I can hardly fault the kid for answering this way.

Now, lucky for us all, I'm not so intense about this that it bothers me. I don't mind Travis learning that some things may not be exactly as they seem. It makes for good conversations and, hopefully, learning experiences for him. Plus, I super-like Travis's teacher, and I don't think this is horribly unfair, or hurting his school experience at all.

But, secretly, I'm also insanely proud of him. He's so gosh-darn clever.