True Colors

The children try, but they do not and will not succeed.

Connor, suffering from a canker sore of mega-proportion, has resorted to whining, whimpering and throwing himself on the ground this week. He is barely talking, which concerned us for a bit, but we have forced him to talk instead of relying on unintelligible sounds. Today, he finally seemed to be talking with fewer meltdowns.

Ian, who has been angelic for most of the week, since he got reamed out while in California, had a burst of energy while helping us wash cars. The end result was him sitting in time out, yelling about how he isn't our friend and how he isn't going to allow us to play with his Legos and how he doesn't like us anymore. I applauded Tom on his complete silence during this tirade, ignored Ian without comment-which incensed Ian all the more-and I know how badly Tom wanted to say something. Ian did not like the silent treatment from Tom and he changed his mind when I basically told him he would be going to bed following dinner unless he decided to think about his choice of words. He had a change of heart and I believe he will begin his good behavior stint all over again.

The boys are also working on homework each day, putting toys away every day (after we spent a huge portion of Saturday sorting Legos and assorted toys) and two other chores of our choosing. They like this and are working to earn some spending money for vacation.

Connor is working on colors for his homework, which is not going so well. He seems to think all of the colors are pink. My mother-in-law told me to get his eyes actually checked by an eye doctor in case he is possibly color-blind. He does know the different colors associated with Cars cars, but I think he doesn't know what the hell I am talking about when I ask him what color something is. Example:

Me: (looking at yellow duck) What color is the duck, Connor?

Connor: Duck.

Me: Yes, it's a duck. What color is the duck?

Connor: Quack.

Me: Yes, a duck says quack. Is the duck red?

Connor: Yes.

Me: Nooo. Is the duck yellow?

Connor: No.

Me: Yes, the duck is yellow. What color is the duck? He's yellow. What color is he?

Connor: Pink.

Me: Yellow.

Connor: Oh, yellow.

Me: (turning page) What's this, Connor?

Connor: Strawberry!

Me: Right. What color is a strawberry, Connor? Is it red?

Connor: No, that strawberry.

Me: Yes, it's a strawberry. Is it a red strawberry?

Connor: No, that a strawberry.

Me: The strawberry is red, Connor. Where is the color red?

Connor: I don't know.

Me: Let's point to the color red. Do you see red?

Connor: (pointing to the strawberry) Look, strawberry!

Me: (going back to the yellow duck page) What color is the duck, Connor?

Connor: Ah, pink!

Me: Hmm, no. The duck isn't pink.

Connor: Look, duck!

Me: Yes. Is the duck yellow?

Connor: I don't know.

Yep, I feel bound and determined to teach the boy his colors. We have done the sorting and cars and I am not quite sure what the right tools are to help him figure it out.

Ian is doing math in his head quickly, but finding letters to be incredibly difficult. He is imposing his own perfection standards on the letters, so he is never happy with how he writes them. His motor skills for writing are not exactly strong, so he knows what to do but cannot seem to make his hand cooperate to make a perfect letter. Yet, I was astonished to see how quickly he could add math problems in his head-no counting on hands-and how logically he came up with his answers. I feel like I am going to need that Danica McKellar math for girls book just to keep up with my five-year-old. (by the way, heard her interviewed on NPR's Science Friday-I hope she does a simple multiplication/division one someday. Not kidding.)

Last week of school. Enormously busy, but looking forward to my short but eventful summer.