Academic Pressure

So, the preschool thing seems to be working out ok so far - we don't want to be particularly pushy about academic achievement, and Spencer is learning letters and numbers and colors and days of the week, and fire safety, and the various other things that kids learn in early school years. We do want to be involved, though, so we ask him about school on a regular basis - for the first month or so, we would ask "What did you do in school today?"

He pretty much answered "I played with cars again," verbatim, every day. At first he sounded cheerful, but eventually he started sounding irritated with the question - his tone sounded more like "You idiots! I played with cars! I always play with cars! Quit bugging me!" We tried to ask questions that led to non-playing-with-cars topics ("Did you draw a picture? Did you sing a song? Did you play with other kids?") but no dice.

Then, maybe a month ago, a new response appeared: "I didn't play with cars again." Of course we were pleased that preschool didn't consist entirely of car-playing, but this response isn't much better at communicating what he actually is doing all day.

Finally, maybe last week sometime, some clarity: his response sounded contrite: "I didn't play with cars again. Sorry." It seems like, somehow, Spencer has got it into his head that we've been sending him to school in order to play with cars? Like, maybe, refine his car-playing techniques? Create a new theory of car-play? I don't know. But it's worth remembering that kids can create pressure for themselves out of thin air.

Finally a few photos.

Twins with open eyes! Simultaneously!


Getting out of the house! It's rotten that the weather has gotten so cold, though. One advantage of having spring babies.

Enjoying a bit of the remaining pleasant days:

Finally, our racecar driver on Halloween:

At the museum of Science and Technology:

An outdated shot on the chin injury - by now it's almost completely healed: