Tuesday, August 3, 2010

She Meant Freak in a Good Way

Today is our neighbor Savannah's birthday. She's four, and one of the presents we got her was a floor puzzle of the U.S. We chose the gift out of family tradition. Our older nephews had such a puzzle when they were very young, and they loved it. In fact when he was barely three, Treat used to identify many of the pieces by name as he went along. 

I taught summer school that year for eighth graders who had failed world geography. On the last day of the term, their grandfather brought the boys by to say hello. Looking around the classroom, Treat made a beeline for the puzzles and started his routine: We live in Virginia. Here's biiiiig Texas. There's Minnesota-- Grandma Fran lives there. That's California! and so it went until he fitted the last piece in place a few minutes later. I looked up and noticed a couple of the students staring at him incredulously. I knew that they had struggled with that puzzle all summer long.

One of the girls made eye contact with me. "No offense," she said, "but your nephew is a freak."

2 comments:

  1. Hey--nice new look on the blog. (I've been reading you in Google Reader and haven't been to the site in a couple of weeks.)

    Love this story--how sometimes good play makes for good learning. One of my mother's friends did a timeline of history around their dining room, at door jamb level. When one of the children was stuck on an answer in their history test in jr. high school, she said later that it was the event right over the kitchen doorway--the answer eventually popped into her mind.

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  2. Thanks, Elizabeth.

    My mom used to quiz us on the states and capitals around the dinner table, but a timeline is pretty hardcore. I like it!

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