Saturday, March 13, 2010

The One Who Knows Everything…

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He doesn't actually know everything...but, he knows a lot.  Sometimes, I actually get mad because he's so smart.  I love it that he's smart, but, sometimes...he knows things that I don't know. 

When he learned to read, in Kindergarten, he spelled everything. 

Everything.

He would spell the words he would say, rather than saying the words.  Whole sentences...whole conversations with spelled words.  Not slowly spelling, but, fast.  Spelling the words so quickly, that sometimes, I would have to ask my 5 year old to slow down, so that I could keep up with him. 

"AYCH-EE-WHY, EM-OH-EM...SEE-A-IN...DOUBLEU-EE...GEE-OH...TEE-OH...TEE-AYCH-EE...PEE-A-ARE-KAY...TEE-OH-DEE-A-WHY?"

I would answer, he would beg me, by spelling the word, 'please.'  It would make my head spin.

He was on the UIL math team, this year, and all the math was done in their heads.  He would come home from practice, and ask, "Mom, is 253 x 127, 32,131?"

How the eff am I supposed to know something like that off the top of my head??  I would distract him as best I could while I thumbed through my calculator on my cell phone, searching for the answer to a math problem he was able to do quickly, in his head. 

I swear he was doing it just to mess with me! 

Today, we took the kids out to eat, and near the end of the meal, Avery asked, "Mom, do they have onomatopoeia?"

The word flew right over the heads of everyone at the table.

I vaguely remembered that it was a literary term, and knew it was not the word he meant to use. 

I said, "What did you just say?  What was that word?"

Avery said, "Onomatopoeia.  I know it's the wrong word, but, I couldn't remember what they were called, and I knew that was close."

I was curious, and asked, "Onomatopoeia...where did you hear that word?  Do you know what it means?"

Jack started chanting, "AWNO-MATO-PEEEEEEEE-YAH...AWNO-MATO-PEEEEEEEE-YAH," and sounded rather like a mantra that a monk might chant!

Jake thought we were all full of shit, and that the word was made up!

Avery explained, "Yeah...it's a term in writing to describe the sound that something makes.  Like, swoosh, bang, or, moo."

There we sat, being schooled by our ten year old on literary terms and stylings...all because he knows the term 'onomatopoeia' and it's definition, but, could not, for the life of him, remember the name of the delicious, Mexican pastry, 'sopapilla.'

7 comments:

S.I.F. said...

That is awesome! I am terrified that my kids are going to be smarter than me! That's why, as much as I like the idea of homeschooling, I don't think I could ever do it - what are you supposed to do when your kids knowledge surpasses your own?

Stacey said...

That sounds like a word that I will never use.

Momof3inVA said...

Kids are so smart these days..I know I am not smarter than a 5th grader, well, I probably could have done the math problem in my head, but I had no clue what that o word was...Sheesh! ;)

Bridget said...

I'll be so glad when Kyle no longer knows everything.... :D

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Margaret said...

Wow he really is smart! I would never use that word either though because I would always forget what it means

Katey said...

My nephew is just like that! Its scary!