After telling C a friend of mine died…“Mommy, maybe you should call that person and see what Heaven’s like!!!!”
“Mom, where’s the back of your head???”
“G’s day was just like Alexander’s. He had a ‘terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.’”
“Mommy, if John F. Kennedy, hadn’t been assassinated, he’d still be alive.”
“Mommy, could you give me some snuggles? Because some tears are about to fall out of me.”
From writing journal with prompts provided…
Outer space….”is a crayon color. Outer space is a place where space men live. The planets are Neptune, Mercury, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Ploto, Moon. There is Saturn and there is even constillations. There is black holes. There is 16 moons on Jupiter. There are astrodies. There is a milky way. One of my favorite games takes place in space and it’s called Galaga 88.” (By the way, this is EXACTLY how C talks.)
In the future…”is something different.”
A museum…“is where things that are old. A museum is a magnificent place. Some museums have dino bones. Some have old-fashined things. Some have fun stuff. Some museums have art. Some museums have pitures.”
A kitchen in a farmhouse…“would be funny.” (Think on that one, readers. You’ll get it. It took me awhile.)
A dream…”is in you when you sleep.”
May 21, 2009
“Mommy, does the ‘MA’ tv rating mean middle-aged?”"
“If there was a tie for President, would they do ‘eenie, meenie, minie, mo’?
“Mommy, I might be the only person in Arizona who can speak bird.”
“Can we watch ‘King Few Pandas’?”
“I know how to speak lots of languages…except Dutch and French. I don’t know those.”
“If I become President, they’ll write a book about me and you can learn all about me, Mom.”
April 5, 2009
From C’s writing journal at school, where the teacher gives them the first part of the sentence and they go on from there:
The saddest day of my life was when…I had a very bad dream. Then I woke up.
When I am twenty-one…I will go to Wheel of Fortune alone. I want more money. I will maybe get a car. I might get one million dollars.
A boy or girl who can’t keep a secret…should keep one.
My family is…very nice. My family is very smart. My family knows everything.
A family with no TV…should have one. They may not want one.
A stowaway on a spaceship…is someone that could not go on. They are not allowed on. They don’t go on. They shouldn’t.
A struggling band…is a band who doesn’t work good.
An amateur spy…is someone who is starting to spy.
A foreign exchange student with his/her host family…would be a person that lives with somebody that lives in a different language.
A person shrunk to one-tenth of his/her size…would be boring.
A clerk…gives you money at the store and you buy stuff.
A boy with a magic baseball cap…can turn into anything.
March 9, 2009
“Here, Mommy, feel my tummy. Does it hurt?”
“I’m not good at geo-gog-raphy.”
“Mommy, why did the Steelers used to be Uncle T’s favorite team? Is it because he likes stealing?”
At the movie theater, “Is this the place where Abraham Lincoln was shot???”
PA: “C, when I was a kid, I only got a nickel from the tooth fairy.”
C: “What was a nickel worth back then?”
February 3, 2009
After throwing a ball, “Fetch, Mommy, GO FETCH!!!”
After telling C we were going Christmas shopping, “Remember, Mommy, Christmas costs less at Walmart.”
“Gold dust is very magical. That’s what Alec Baldwin told me.” (Alec Baldwin narrates his favorite Thomas the Train movie.)
“Mommy, I’m not going to buy my own car when I grow up. I’m going to get one on Wheel of Fortune.”
(From class writing) When I get hungry…”I eat tings and pretzels because they are good. I like food with calories.”
I wish I could be like…”Thomas the Train because I like trains. I also want to be like a miner. I want to be like a marble.”
I wish I could look like…”Barack Obama because he is a president. I want to be like Mrs. B because she is nice. I wish I could be like the same.”
If I could change one thing…”for the world and it will be to stop the war. Wars are not so good. I also will change school to a playground maybe. I will change school to Wheel of Fortune. I will change school to a different country.”
“Mommy, did you know that the spare group of 49 is 7?”
December 16, 2008
“Mommy, I love ya’ from here all the way to the Highway 70 in Utah.”
“Hurry up and give me a snuggle! My brain is dissolving!!!”
(From class writing work) I wish I were better at…tennis because it is fun. Next week I might hit the teacher again.
“Someone forted at school today. Oh, yeah, it was ME. And it was FUNNY. And it’s spelled f-o-r-t with an e-d at the end of it.” (It took me several moments to figure out he’s finally learned the real word for what we call “tooting.” But leave it to him to put his own spin on it…)
“Mommy, I do NOT know ANY cow language at ALL.”
November 19, 2008
While preparing to give C a reading placement test, his speech therapist read him the instructions. She was required to say three times, “If you come to a word you don’t know, I’ll tell it to you so you can keep reading.” The first two times she said it, C responded, “That won’t happen.” On the third, he said, “I already told you, that won’t happen!”
(Our caller ID showed a certain Presidential candidate’s campaign called, and I overheard C share the exciting news with a playmate the other day.) “Guess who called today? John McCain!!!!”
(Tearfully) “Mommy, can you never give me shoestring potatoes again??? Because they have transfat in them!!!”
(From class writing) The best movie I ever saw was…The Great Discovery, The Thomas Movie. The rating is GENRAL.
When I was a small child…I could not play golf very well.
My biggest goal in life is…to build bigger train sets.
October 22, 2008
“I played basketball for the first time today. Now I can play for a real team on TV!”
From writing work at school…If I ever get married…“I will have triplets and will marrie S.” (S would be the adorable girl that sits next to C.)
More from writing work…People love me because… “I like to snuggle with my family. Also I am so so so so so cute.”
At home I am… “helping out with so so so so so many chores. Like folding the laundry, open blinds, bring out water. All these chores make me get so much allounce.”
“Do you know what’s on the back of the two dollar bill? Two guys sitting on chairs, I think.”
“Peanuts have two ingredients: peas and nuts.”
“There was a big bang at school today. Did you hear it??? My potato chips exploded. The bag kaboomed all over the place.”
September 18, 2008
C is hyperlexic, which translates to an early interest in letters, numbers and logos, followed by very early reading. He could read almost before he could talk. His first day of preschool, at just shy of 3 years old, he walked into the room, looked up at the EXIT sign, and said, “E, X, I, T, exit!” His teacher asked me if I’d heard of hyperlexia, which I never had. I’m pretty sure we thought all three year olds knew how to read and spell the word “exit.” I took him home, wrote all the words he could say (there weren’t many at that time) on his magic doodle board, and he read them. We were astounded, and quite frankly delighted. He also figured out, at about 4, how to calculate someone’s age in money (I’m a quarter, a dime, and 4 pennies). And I still remember him wandering around the playroom pointing out every Fisher Price toy we had. He fits the hyperlexia diagnosis probably better than any other diagnosis he has.
Generally, hyperlexic kids even out with their peers and then tend to fall behind in later years, when comprehension becomes problematic. At the moment, C is excelling in all things academic. C can decode just about any word, but he doesn’t necessarily know what they mean. Even when he understands what they mean, he doesn’t always really get the meaning in context. We’ve had a few people who think he’s gifted academically, but I’ve never been completely convinced that it’s not just the hyperlexia. Time will tell.
In the meantime, schoolwork has become somewhat more challenging, which has presented areas of concern, such as his recent answer to the question, “When was a time when you were pleased with yourself?” The question was in response to reading a story about a girl who is proud she won a spelling bee. His answer, “I’m pleased that my Aunt J and Uncle T are coming soon,” made clear his fundamental misunderstanding of the context of the word in the story.
Yet there are entertaining moments as well. Never has this been so clear as today’s schoolwork that came home, requesting the kids use specific words in a sentence of their own creation. C’s responses had us all howling with laughter and glee.
HARDLY – I work and play hardly.
HANDSOME – I am handsome looking, because I look good.
SPARKLING – I am sparkling because I am cute all over.
For this moment at least, I put away any nagging concern in the back of my head about academics in his future. If he can retain this kind of charm and self-confidence, I’ll consider his schooling a complete success.
August 27, 2008
I want to be together forever with you, Mommy. So then you can buy me stuff.
MOMMMMMYYYYYY!!!!! THERE’S SOMETHING COMING IN FROM OUTSIDE MY WINDOW AND I THINK IT’S IN THE SHAPE OF LIGHTNING!!!!!
I’m a little worried about A’s box of crayons. He doesn’t have the aquamarine crayon.
(As he’s pouring water down his swimsuit trunks) I’m washing my dooder. It’s really dirty. How did it get dirty, C? It’s been wiggling around a lot and it got really dirty.
Wanna know something cool about me, Mommy? I can read words on a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade level!
Mommy, if I saw you at the store, and you wanted to be selled, how much would you be?
August 21, 2008
