Follow the numbers

Jack loves getting awards. Whether it be for crazy dancing or entering competitions on TV he'll go to any length to earn whatever material is being offered for his efforts. It doesn't matter if he comes first, just so long as he gets something that he can take away.

He came across one of many book in the house that Helen and I purchase in the hopes of encouraging him to learn. This one was a perfect find because it's numbers and letters book aimed at the 4 - 5 age group. He's been learning some of this stuff at school nursery which is what peaked his interest.

So we set to. Jack started with the numbers 1 - 10. I wasn't surprised when after just a few pages Jack started to lose interest. He pressed on till number 3 and then announced that he'd had enough. I tried to encourage him to go on but it was no use. So we packed up the book and he wandered off. The next day he mentioned the book again.

I want to do a little more learning.

Encouraged by this I grabbed the book and we had searched for number 3, it was right after 2 as it turns out. But this time I noticed something.

Jack... There are certificates in this book you know.
Awards?
Yes. It's a piece of paper that we fill out and then you can show everyone proof that you've done one through ten.
I want it.
Then you've got to get through all these pages.


You've never seen such determination in a 4 year old. After a solid hour we reached the certificate. For those of you unfamiliar with the 4 year old attention span, any task that takes more than 5 minutes, especially when there's any amount of frustration likely to occur, will never be completed. We filled out the certificate and Jack proudly showed it to every visitor for the next week. He even bragged about it at school.

Well done son.

He's also since earned the lower-case alphabet certificate. It took him 3 days.