T.J. and the girls were delighted to have a snow day today, and this morning T.J. told Haley in Mandarin that he wanted to learn some English. They got to stay up late last night and make s'mores in the fireplace when their homework was done. T.J. put up a big fight about my helping him with his ESL homework from school, matching English words with their rhyming counterparts and copying them. He also had some addition problems. He did very well counting on his fingers (just like Mom). He seemed to like the homework in spite of himself and in spite of previous protestations, but he was convinced that my intervention would not be helpful on his English work. I tried to show him that "snug" and "rug" rhymed. He moaned and kicked his feet (looking none too threatening in his red slippers and fleece robe patterned with skulls) and pointed at the word "run," indicating he had already used it. His confusing "rug" and "run" seemed quite normal and even somewhat sophisticated. Either he has picked up a lot or he knew his ABC's and was sandbagging us. I picked up a green marker and wrote on my arm: "snug" and "rug" then covered the initial consonants to show him the remaining letters were the same. T.J. was not amused as i continued to cover my arm with green words, then moved on to label a cup and mug. I sang the Starfall.com song "Listen to the Short U Sound, Uh-Uh-Uh-Uh-Uh." Annie Sullivan I am not. At the end of the wrangle, we cemented what we had learned with a pull-the-tab book on bugs, and even shared a laugh over the dung beetle pop-up: "Bug! Poop!"
One day at a time.
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