Liam, who turned 5 yrs old last week, spent a few hours with me today. As always, he brought along some dinosaur encyclopedias, as well as flash cards for the 50 states. I got my big U.S. wall map and laid it on the big coffee table so it was all visible. He would pull a card, read the state, capitol, and various facts, and then find the state on the map. He really knows his geography!
Then of course came the dinosaurs. He was reading me the stats on various dinos, and gave the length & height of each. I looked at the pictures and asked him "wonder why the T Rex has such big teeth whereas the Spinosaurus is a much larger dinosaur but has smaller teeth." Liam looked at me as though I was dense and said in a "teacherly voice", "Grandma, it's because spinosaurus (the big one) ate fish and T Rex was a meat eater." It is so logical that I'm embarassed I didn't see it myself!
He starts school this Thursday - the school has Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2, meaning he will be in Kind. for two years. It seems better than to spend another year in play school, but I hope his teacers are ready for him
Geography was always my favorite subject in grade school, and I'm so happy to have a grandchild who shares my love for travel and exploration, and learning about other places and peoples. Argentina is his favorite place, and maybe that's why "Argentinosaurus" is his favorite dinosaur!
I still haven't even thought about packing for my trip and I'll be scrambling at the last minute. That's better than getting it all packed now and then having to go through everything several times to see if I remembered important items.
I called the newspaper this morning intending to just do a vacation stop, but ending up cancelling the paper altogether. I can't read it and usually just look at the darker headlines. It's becoming more difficult to work the NY Times xword puzzle as well, and I don't need all the ads because that just makes me want to shop. I will miss going out and picking it up off the porch on Sunday mornings. Getting older ain't fun, and I'm noticing I have more trouble understanding people on the phone. I complain about not being able to decipher the accents anymore, but it's probably my own hearing loss. I certainly didn't have hearing troubles until just a few years ago.
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Liam sounds like a wonderful grandson to spend time with. I hope our institutional education system doesn't ruin his enthusiasm. Hearing is a real problem especially since it isn't covered by anyone and the screenings and especially hearing aids are so expensive.
ReplyDeleteIt is just like my Mom used to say, "getting old ain't for sissies". Now I know what she was talking about. She did make it a few years into her 90's.
ReplyDeleteLiam is quite smart for his age, yes I hope the teacher will be ready for him and be able to keep up with him.
ReplyDeleteI bet there aren't many 5 year olds that know where Argentina is. My grandson is 13 and you can't even carry on a conversation with him unless you can play the games he plays and I can't. I would like to see if they can get anything out of him at school.
ReplyDeleteWe watched both grandkids last night. It does not take long for them to wear me out:)
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