You know when you teach kids to count there’s bound to be suppressed smiles and giggles when they make blunders. Then there those moments when you just can’t help it and you roar with laughter. If you’re anything like me you’ll have your kid counting for anyone whom you think will be amused too. Yes I’m a bad-ish mom like that but unless you hear it for yourself, you’ll think I’m making this up. Like the time Little K was 2yo and I asked how much she loves me and she said “I love you R2”. She loved “Keith” and I as well as my mom and dad R2. When my sister asked her one day she said “I love you R1”. Hmmm… I wonder if her 2yo mind had that kind of logic already. Who knows…
When she started counting a few years back we didn’t find the missing or jumbled numbers all too amusing because kids do that. We all have to learn and we were determined to help her. Soon she counted from one to twenty-nine no problem. What came after twenty-nine had me in tears from laughter. She would count “twenty-nine, twenty-ten, twenty-eleven”, etc. You guys, I made her count over and over like a broken record and “Keith” got quite mad at me because I ridiculed “his” baby. Ooh these girls have him wrapped around their fingers, but that’s a story for another day.
Little K started Grade R this year and we are being schooled like it’s going out of fashion. Although she knows the days of the week by heart she scowls at me every morning because her teacher says I’m supposed to tell her the days everyday. And I do forget it everyday not because I take it for granted that she knows. She knows the days so I really don’t have to remind a child that tells me “Mommy you’re supposed to tell me it’s Thursday today and yesterday was Wednesday and tomorrow will be Friday.”
She’s doing rather well, thanks to the input of “teacher-mommy” too, but in my quest of teaching her shapes, numbers and other age appropriate activities, I’ve forgotten all about co-ordination and the importance of it. Turns out she can’t gallop and got graded 1 for it. I boldly told her teacher that she got it from her dad while laughing. When telling my mom about this she laughed at me and said my child actually got it from me. I was a fat baby and took a while before I started walking without falling. At age 3/4 I still couldn’t jump either and was quite heavy on shoes. The joke is on me. Give me a minute to compose myself and tell my toddler self :”Don’t worry you’ll get it right. Just practice. When you’re much, much older like me, you’ll be able to much more than just jump.” I can’t tell her that I can’t gallop either. Yes I discovered that too.
Just now I heard Little K counting again but this time in Afrikaans. It went a little something like this: “Een, twee, drie, vier, vyf, ses, ag, negen, negen-een, negen-twee, negen-drie” etc. This occasion I managed to suppress my smile and admired my 6yo for attempting to count in her second language. Kudos to her.
This kid is growing way too fast for my liking. What I do love is the learning curve and all the laughs it provides. She really does not fail to entertain.
What are your kids up to?
Surviving Jonkersville 