First day of school for 2009

It seemed strange today not having to check whether Anika needed tutoring help with maths but with three boys back into the school routine I think I was busy enough. Mike is up to learning to read this year but he seems to want to run ahead a little. On Sunday we had this conversation with Mike:

Mike: What does four mean?

Me: Do you mean the number four?

Mike: No, like, "for dinner"? What does for mean?

Me: (slightly stumped) Er?...

Hubby: It's a dative meaning....

Me: Maybe we should teach Mike to read first before teaching grammar.

Mike also wanted to offer his wisdom on solving one of our weekly puzzles which goes like this:

"A woman sat at her kitchen table with her two sons. She spoke to each of her sons and they replied to her, but the sons never spoke to each other. The boys had not fallen out and did not dislike each other. Although they conversed freely with their mother, they never addessed a word to one another. Why?"*

The Q family were offering their bits and pieces of thought on this when suddenly Mike piped up with, "Maybe they didn't talk because their mouths were full." At least he was thinking of good manners. And here's his first wobbly letter "a"s (I think he was getting tired at the end):

*page 14 "Lateral Thinking Puzzles" Paul Sloane, Illustrated by Myron Miller, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. New York 1991