Another Accomplished Scholar: The Writer

As you can probably guess from his blog nickname, my oldest son The Writer is more in tune to his literary side than his math side. I won't go so far as to say he's more right-brained than left-brained; the boy is phenomenally good at things like building and constructing (with Lego as well as any other material you hand him), and he's quite the engineer, really.

But math, which he's good at when he let's himself be, is not at all his favorite subject. He'd much rather be doing, well, anything else. Anything but math.

And this year, his 8th grade year, he started Algebra I. Today, he had his first Algebra test. He scored a 90, an A. And I couldn't be more proud.

(side note: I seem to say that about my boys pretty often.....)

Of course, in typical Writer fashion, he pulled some answers out of thin air. Or, more accurately, he flipped a coin for at least one of the True/False questions. (he got it right). And he let me know, though not too loudly, when a problem was tripping him up.  I've come to expect that kind of thing and just ignore it. Or tease back.

When he really showed himself? The last question was a word problem, asking "If the Henderson family traveled 782 miles, at an average speed of 68 miles per hour, how many hours did the trip take?"

The Writer added the following:

"Adding the time it took for each stop light, toll booth, traffic, and bathroom (or lunch) breaks, Who knows?"*

(*pssst, Mom, the answer is 11.5)

As proud as I am of his 90% on the test, I have to admit I laughed, out loud and for real, at his final answer. Truthfully? His creativity there makes me just as proud as the A in Algebra.

I really am Mom to a fantastic bunch of boys, and my oldest is leading the way. What has someone done lately in your family to make you smile? 

A Story by The Adventurer, Boy Genius (aka, the story that blogger ate)

I have a guest post today! Yes, my very own 6 year old son, with some commentary and translation by me. It promises to be hilariously fun, so set down your drink (far, far from your computer) and enjoy.

The scene starts with my not-yet-literate 6 yr old, The Adventurer, asking to "play Type" on the computer. That is 6 yr old code for "I want to type in Word, please."  I, being the fun wonderful mom I am, said Sure.

Here is an excerpt from what he typed (the full document is a few pages long....), with pertinent translation by me.

THBIBYYINNNHGTHGHGHHTIBHU(:&9900000MVJVBUBYDYGYFYVNLNYUIRYVYRYRYVGRRYGYUGYRG

 What that part says is that an Evil Sensei has just threatened to kill some little kids if they don't give him their money. Note the smiley face, which indicates the Sensei is quite gleeful about this. Also note the "billions and billions of moneys" he plans to take from the kids. Clearly my son is genius.

9999990000000000000000000000TURUHYUHIRUTUIHUHUTHRUGHUHYHYRYTHTH(((;************(((;

Okay, now we see the really billions of moneys that the Sensei in fact took from the kids, and thus did not kill them, since they gave him their money. Aren't we relieved that the little children are only threatened, not really killed?? Yes, I was too.

Also, do you notice the winking emoticons? Those are the super really happy kids, winking at each other and "making their eyes like this (insert goofy 6 yr old winking face here)" because they are so super really happy.

And do you also notice that string of asterisks? That is not code for swear words, that is a snowball fight from one emoticon little boy to the other. Brilliant, I tell you. Brilliant.

One final clip, just to prove my boy's genius beyond a shadow of a doubt.  This comes at the end of page four...

:(  <  :) 

In case you are not well versed in emoticons, that's a sad face, and a happy face. Between them? That's an open book. The happy face emoticon is reading to the sad face emoticon, and the final line of this story by The Adventurer reads, once translated, "Wow, that was scary. What would have happened if the sensei had taken our money??"

Yes, you read that right. My not-yet-literate (except in emoticons) son just typed up four pages of gibberish that are his efforts at telling a story. Not just any story, but actually, when we get to the end of it, a story within a story.


Boy Genius, I tell you. Pure Boy Genius.