SOL25-1202
It had been a full morning. Full. But good. The productive sort of good. Seven siblings and cousins from kindergarten through eighth grade have been busy with their lessons. Math. Language arts. Science. Social studies.
T6, who is 7 years old, is working hard on his social studies lesson about families. He’s writing his answers to some basic questions about his own family.
Later that day, through bursts of shared laughter, Mommy tells me about T6’s social studies answers and reasoning.
I.
T6 is working on his social studies lesson.
Q #1
How many people live in your house?
T6 counts Mommy, Daddy, his 3 brothers, himself and writes: 6
Q #2
How many of them are adults?
T6 writes: 1
II.
Mommy sees T6’s answer and asks: “T6, who’s the adult in our house?”
T6 with all seriousness answers “You, Mommy.”
First layer of laughter . . .
.
III.
It seems the lesson context clues didn’t support correct understanding of the meaning of the word “adult” in a household of Daddy, Mommy, and 4 boys.
Second layer of laughter . . .
IV.
Mommy ends the story by telling me: “T6 was so darn serious when he answered me, I started to laugh so hard he just laughed with me ’til I told him Dad was an adult too. For some reason he thought adults just meant ‘big women!’ Not sure I want to be one now.”
My comment: “That’s what happens when you tell him “I’m the adult.”
Third layer of laughter . . .
Epilogue
Through the years, we’ve shared so many laughs when we recall this social studies lesson.
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What a great story. I guess this proves that we have to be careful about what we say and the context it is in. Just wondering, what is daddy if not an adult?
Thanks for the chuckle this morning. Your format really layered in the enjoyment in this piece.
Anita,
Thanks for sharing this sweet story. Always interesting to see how our students understand the workd.
I like your structure and the repitition and growth of the numbered “layers of laughter.”
The greatest memories are those with this kind of humor – – the way we always thought about something when it’s debunked and clarified – – kind of like those songs with misheard lyrics. I love this. I’m also glad I fit the definition of adult. 🙂 Thanks for sharing the laughter.
I love the way you set-up these micro-chapters to move us through the narrative. And:
I do think Moms make excellent adults 🙂
I, too, planned to comment about the interesting structure. I like calling them micro-chapters. That’s great!