Nothing would surprise me with this kid.

So, this morning during church, my son E, who is 4, had me convinced he could full-on read (possibly in Spanish). Now, I know that he cannot - he's in Reception (which is like Kindergarten but it starts with 4-year-olds here) and he's learning some phonics and can sound out simple words like 'car', 'into', and 'the'. All of which is well and good - in fact, I think he's proceeding quite well and am immensely proud in a proper, dignified, fatherly way.

He was looking through my Bible, as he often does to keep occupied during church, because he knows that his name can be found on a page in Genesis, and because I have scattered throughout it some transparent Jesus stickers that someone gave me and that I put in there during my mission. Also, my Bible is nonstandard - it is a dual-language version with Spanish in the left column and the corresponding English in the right. It is a standard Born-Again Bible in other respects - minimal index, but pages on how to be saved by accepting Jesus, Christ's words in red, etc. Anyway, it's my Bible and its the one I read cover to cover as a missionary and it has all my notes and markings in it. Here's the page E was looking at:

So after he looks at it for a minute, he turns to me and says "He didn't say anything."

Me: "Wait, what?"

E: "Jesus. He didn't say anything"

Me (internal monologue):WHOA! That's verse 7 right there! Not only can he read silently, this kid is reading and paraphrasing what he's reading!

Me (aloud): Uhhhh, how do you know that?


Any guesses? I'll post the answer in comments tomorrow.

Cardboard Forts

When I was little, my cousins and I would take over my grandparents' garage each summer and build a giant cardboard spaceship. They would collect fridge boxes and other large cardboard boxes throughout the year, and we would put them all together into a maze and make control panels out of broken electronic equipment and styrofoam. Then, when it was time to blast off, we would each get in our respective quarters (also our battlestations) and my grandparents would beat on the ship with brooms and make whooshing sounds for takeoff. Seriously quality memories.

I was reminded of all that by a post over on Geekdad which mentions Mr. McGroovy's Box Rivets. OH MAN that stuff looks fun. I am totally ready to start collecting boxes and turn my living room into a castle. I can foresee me wanting to keep it there WAY longer than the rest of the Family Steering Committee, though - maybe we'll have to work up to it with a Princess Carriage or something...

Sneaking up on toast

My daughter and I invented a new game. Now, whenever we make toast, her job is to listen for it to be done. Then, we act as sneaky as possible and tiptoe into the kitchen to sneak up on it before retrieving it and sneaking back to the table. Now every night she wants to know "Can we make toast and sneak up on it?" The best part for me is the conspiratorial look of excitement on her face. Plus, she likes to 'put on her listening ears' (she must have learned that at day care) and be very quiet waiting to hear it spring up.

Invented any good games with kids lately? Lets hear about them!