If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding

Ethan is having his first spelling test this week. The teacher sent home his vocabulary words today. A sample of the words: I, is, fan, man. We had him spell all of the words. He got them all without any hesitation.

Just to test the waters I asked him to spell these: street, smoke, and monster. He got all of those, too. I think Ethan is too much of an introvert to be in the "accelerated learning program." He is too quiet and likes to do his own thing. But I really don't see that he is getting much out of first grade. The work is a joke. Why is there so much coloring in school? What purpose does it serve? I know phonics are involved, but I really get tired of reading mindless sentences about "pup" and "sis." Those aren't even words.

Pam was on the path. The pup was thin. Pam sat on a mat. Pam said, "It is fun on the path."

I guess it is probably working but he never seems to be challenged. There is nothing about school to make it enjoyable. Ethan says all of the kids tell him he is good at drawing. If I had a scanner I would post the picture he drew of a duck with a sledgehammer chasing an ant. Above the ant, it says, "Go ant!" The duck has a chicken beak because Ethan didn't know how to draw a duck bill. But we took some time and showed him how to draw bills and webbed feet.

I said, "You ARE a good drawer, Ethan." And he said, "I'm not as good at drawing as you are, dad."

It was a weird conversation because it felt like we were friends instead of father and son. I told him he would get bigger and then he would be better than me.

If nothing else, school is good for doodling. I hardly ever doodle anymore even though it's one of my favorite things. Ethan does doodles of me and I always have four arms. Sometimes he draws a heart in my chest. Not a heart shape. A bloody organ pumping away. It's sweet.