Like feathr.

Reading and writing have never been Jack's strong points at school. He keeps up just fine but he works quite slowly compared to other types of work, like math. It's never been much of a concern because he's still toward the top of his class, the quality of his work is near perfect it's just notably slowly produced. The teachers, as well as us, have always just put it down to Jack's tendency toward perfectionism.

Earlier this week Helen stated that Jack had some news on the reading and writing subject. Jack informed me that he'd been given something to help him with his reading, a couple small coloured overlays, red and yellow.

Jack is thrilled. He says it's making reading much easier, the letters are much clearer and he can read much quicker. Since having received these he's seems to have soared to the top of the class. He's now reporting that he keeps finishing first, or is the only one who finished. He told me that read a 32 page book yesterday.

So, it's looking like Jack is possibly dyslexic. It's still a tad early to say for certain. With him being so young it could just be mistaking a lack of focus as Irlen Syndrome. The problem is that if you ask a six year old child if the letters are hard to see they'll pretty much just say yes. If out put coloured paper in front of them and ask if that's better they'll just say yes. So the diagnostic process can be somewhat challenging. But being that dyslexia is hereditary and I'm dyslexic, two of my brothers and my father are as well, so the odds are against him.

There isn't a problem with him possibly being dyslexic, my only concern is that from now on we'll have to deal with endless teaching enabling plans and teachers that treat him like he's a little slow. Dyslexia is largely considered a learning disability and as soon as you label a child as having a learning disability, the safety scissors and circles of paper come out. It can be a frustrating world to find yourself in especially when you're every bit as clever, if not cleverer, that everyone else in the class and you know it, yet the teachers still declare you lazy, or vacant, or thick headed.

Irlen Syndrome is easiest described as an eye problem. Due to the way the brain processes visual information coming in from the eyes, distortions can appear making reading difficult, or impossible. Irlen Syndrome is not exclusive to dyslexics, in fact the association between them is not accepted by many. I don't suffer to much from Irlen Syndrom myself, only with certain colour schemes or when I'm tired I see shadows or bars over the text. I just have virtually no reading comprehension at all and reading just wears me out.

So we'll keep an eye on how Jack gets on over the next few months and try to get better idea of what's really going on. Until then I'm happy that his enthusiasm for reading and writing seems to have been renewed. He'll be be allowed to bring his overlays home shortly, which he's also excited about, and we've ordered some of our own overlays, I'm also going to install iOverlay on his iPod. I really hope that we can help him learn to enjoy reading rather than letting him grow to dread it like I did, we're going to do everything that we can.

You can find out more about Dyslexia and Irlen Syndrome on those links.

Bird and bee related questions

Jack has been asking a particular question lately. He's doesn't like not having his questions answered completely and often repeatedly, he's also to smart now to know when he's not being given a proper answer. So when he asked Helen about where babies really come from she told him that she wanted to speak to me before giving him an answer, he was pretty annoyed.

I was surprised at just how strongly I felt about this particular situation. The liberal part of me says just tell him, if he's old enough to ask then he's old enough to know and he's too young to really understand anyway but with all the talk recently of the 'loss of innocence' I find myself on the fence. Whether or not he understands I'd still rather he remain totally unaware for at least a couple more years. He's got lots of other things to learn about first.

So after some soul searching, we did a little research and purchased a book. It's basically the answer to the question from a child's perspective with matching illustration. I had a look over the book before reading it to Jack and generally I have to say that it was alright. There's only one page in the middle that I don't quite approve of (a space hopper in involved) but we gloss over that page.

I'm still not entirely comfortable with the idea but I'm getting there. Jack was happy with the answer the book provided and hasn't enquired about it again.



The book is titled 'Mommy Laid an Egg' by Babette Cole and has apparently been banned in some places.

Bring out your junk

Every so often Jack's class starts a project where they build something. Letters will go out a few days before and Jack will usually mention in passing that we've got to supply the materials. Mostly the materials they ask for is junk i.e. clear plastic bottles, bottle tops or half an egg shell.

The problem I have with this is that Jack often suggest and sometimes will insist on keeping a hold of junk so that he can create things at home. And it's very difficult to get him to get rid of things as it is, he's very, very sentimental. The school seems to think that we just have endless supplies of product packaging hanging around the house. I have the tendency to hoard things if I'm not careful. I hang on to software, electronics and documents like it's made of gold (I suppose some of it is), I generally just hate throwing that kind of stuff away. But I don't hold on to cardboard boxes, bottle tops and pringles tubes just in case I (or Jack) are feeling creative. I dread when shows like Art Attack come onto the TV because it's impossible to get the exhibited projects out of Jack's head.

The latest is a musical instrument, after which they will be making a lighthouse. Thankfully Jack was only interested in making maracas and I love pringles so it was a good excuse.

I don't want to quash Jack's fascination with artistic recycling. I love to see him create things, anything at all really. Every creation is a little hint to how is mind works and is developing. Just ask him, he can make virtually anything out of a cardboard tube, sellotape and a piece of string. He wants to make robots when he grows up and I will do whatever I can to help him get there, but I'd like to do it without a house full of trash.

Perhaps I'l teach him to program, then he can make things that take up less physical space.

Maths

07-07-2013

For the past five weeks I've been attending a maths class at Jack's school. The purpose of this class is two fold. First: to give parents an idea of what math techniques the kids are being taught in school and how they are being taught them. Second: to help parents brush up on their maths as well, it's a practical skill after all, and encourage them to enrol on a math course at their local college.

Now, I don't suggle with math, not only have I been knee deep in advanced calculus and trigonometry for the last three years, but I've always been good at math. I only struggle when the math involves being written down. I like math. I like it because of the solidarity, the right answer is the right answer, it's not down to any interpretation.

I enrolled for this class knowing that the way that I was taught math in school was very different to the way Jack was being taught. I thought that it would be good for the future when I will undoubtedly need to help Jack with his math homework. With an overview if how he's been taught I should be more equipped to help him. Also the kids got to join us for the last half hour of the class, when Jack heard about this he was pretty insistent.

The class was good over all, I spent most of the class whizzing through the work and then helping the others, or giving brief lectures on things like the Monty Hall problem. What struck me most is that Jack is being taught techniques that I used to get into trouble for doing. Number bonds, for instance, I became quite notorious in my class for using number bonds to do math in my head, though I didn't know it at the time, it was just how I did it. In 7th grade I got bumped ahead into pre-algebra (9th grade) only to fail it spectacularly and get pushed back into the math class that was for the slow 8th graders. Number bonds, place values, and other similar techniques are the main cause for this failure. I could do the math in my head, but they wanted it on paper. If I did it on paper I got it wrong or got lost.

Now a days schools in Britain have realised the value of being able to do math in your head and are trying to teach it from as early an age as possible. All the written techniques that I was taught are not taught until year 6 or later. Some of them, like touch points, aren't even taught anymore.

Throughout the course I learned all of the terms and techniques that he's going to be taught over the next six years and already I can see their use. Jack and are regularly doing little math problems and it's changed a lot lately now that I can encourage him to use what he's been taught, we're a lot more productive and it's one more thing that we can do and enjoy together.

Moot opinion

28-03-2013
This morning's conversation:

Daddy today I'm going to play temple run 2 at school. Who should I be?

Are you sure you want me to answer? Whenever you ask me a question like this you always reject my answer.

I don't always.

You do Jack, every time.

Well I won't this time. Who should I be?

Be Guy Dangerous.

No what animal should I be?

...What?

What animal should I be in temple run 2.

Be the monkey thing then.

No the monkey chases me what other animal?

There aren't any other animals in temple run 2.

No I can be any animal from any where.

You said from temple run 2. You gave me bad information.

No it can be any animal.

Be a monkey then.

No the monkey chases me. I can't be a monkey too.

Be a spider then.

No a spider would get killed.

I don't know what you want me to say Jack.

I want you to choose an animal.

I did.

A different animal.

This is what I was talking about Jack, why don't you pick an animal that you want.

You know what? I will be Guy Dangerous like you said.

Whatever you want Jack.

No. Finlay can be Guy Dangerous I'll be his dog.

Smelly Sprinkles

Jack is difficult to trick. I've remarked on this before. He's naturally inquisitive and well, suspicious of anything you say to him. He's also difficult to tease, mostly because he has a tendency to take whatever your saying literally and he panics if you say it more than once.
These two aspects of his personally contradict each other and make for some good entertainment.

Today I picked him up from school. He's had a new stunt scooter over the weekend and I knew he'd want me to bring it to school so he can show it off and ride it home. I also noted that it was a very nice and warm day which meant that the ice cream man was likely to be strategically positioned outside the school. He couldn't have both purely for logistical reasons so I weighed the options and decided that I'd take some cash for ice cream.

As I walked to the school I planned out a clever little deception/tease. He would almost certainly ask why I didn't bring the scooter and I would give him some vague answer and drag it out until the ice cream truck was just about to come into view. Then I would make some remark about how he wasn't going to have two hands free to ride with and drag that out a bit. It was genius.

Jack came out of class and straight away said
You know you could have brought my scooter.
I know I thought about it but decided on something else.
The ice cream man is here.
... What makes you so sure?
Because you didn't bring my scooter because I would need one hand to hold my ice cream. Yaaay yay. Yaaaaay ice cream.
... I'd love to know why you think my not bringing your scooter means you're going to get ice cream. He might not even be there.
He is, I can smell the sprinkles.

Held Back

Jack's progress in his swimming lessons has been slow. He's just not a strong swimmer, he can move his arms and his legs but doing both together gives him problems.

He attends swimming lessons weekly and we go swimming as a family from time to time. So it's not like he doesn't get a lot of time in the water, he just didn't seem to get it. He's in the beginners class where the kids take turns being guided/pulled by the instructors across the short length of the pool.

He didn't get one of his badges some months ago and it seems to have had a snowball effect. At the time we weren't surprised because Jack just wasn't getting any better at swimming despite our best efforts. The reason given was that he needed to do more work on his back, but when asking what the meant no one could give any real answer. In swimming lessons they spend very very little time on back work so we felt a little short changed.

A few months ago, in true Jack style something just clicked and he was suddenly able to swim. He went from having to cling to us and demanding floats to swimming long lengths underwater.

So we eagerly waited the next swimming exam thing for Jack to show his stuff. The exam came and Jack did get a badge. We were very happy. Sure this badge meant that he'd finally be moving up.

The weeks went by and nothing changed, despite the new badge Jack remained in the beginners class while some of his friends were moved on. Jack started to get bored in the lessons and would start messing around between tasks. The next exams came around and Jack got another badge, and that was it. Many if the other kids in the class moved on but Jack stayed where he was. So we had a word with the boss and were told that Jack needed to pass his 5m swim before he could move on, this is the exam that he failed all the months ago. We immediately challenged and requested that someone test him. The boss obliged and Jack passed with flying colors and got another badge...

So another week went by and as I sat and watched Jack get bored an start to swim laps on his own during class I got a little annoyed. I thought about the last few months and noticed something. Because of that 5m fail all those months ago Jack has slipped though the cracks of this system and had effectively been forgotten about. Despite his having done all that he was required to do he was just behind enough that he would never really progress. I've seen this sort of thing a hundred times before. I dug down deep into my system manipulation library and made a very simple plan. I don't like to be the parent that's forever yelling at the poor instructors because I feel like my child getting a raw deal, I more of a strategist when it comes to that sort of thing.

When the boss appeared the following week I gave Jack a task.
He approached the boss and asked with hope in his eyes,
Now that I've done my 5m am I in the bigger class?
The response was exactly what I expected, "No Jack, not just yet."
I smiled politely at the boss as Jack came back with the response. No daddy, I'm still in the little kids class.
I made sure that we were still in view and earshot of the boss.
"Sorry Hun, they'll move your up when you're ready."
Ok. Jack sighed.
Excellent, now watch it go.

Ten minutes later one of the instructors approached me.
"I've been watching Jack and I want to bring him up into my class now."
"Oh, ok great."

Jack beamed at me as he was lead to the big kids class.

Parent's Evening on my own

Helen had to work this year which left me to attend parents evening solo. I'm not good at this sort of thing. I never ask enough of the right questions and I forget the answers anyway. Usually my handling things like this on my own result in Helen booking an additional appointment later on.
This time, knowing that I was on my own I mentally prepped and practiced some questions.

The conversation was light, generally the teacher is very happy with Jack. He's in the top group for math, and reading, and he's in the second to top group for writing. He's got lots of friends and always tried his hardest, so much so in fact that he quite often is trying to make his work so perfect that he doesn't finish. He's very competitive but doesn't get himself down if he loses. He's very articulate (no surprise there) and he's become quite famous for knowing strange things, like the inner workings of black holes, the speed of sound and the number and functions of pi.

It wasn't all praise though, Jack needs to work in his penmanship. Aside from that, I was very proud to be his parent that evening.

After the meeting with his teacher I went into the class room to take a look at some of Jack's workbooks. I sat myself in a corner upon a tiny chair and took my time with each book. The workbooks were full of barely legible writings and occasional comments from the teachers. I made mental notes to ask Jack what some of the teachers scribed icons meant, one if which is a smiley face with an empty speech bubble, (apparently this means that the teacher has spoken to Jack about it). There were lots of positive comments from the teachers and the occasional reminder that he needs to listen more carefully.
Jacks math was very good, there were some pretty complicated sums in the book and he had the correct answer most of the time.

As I neared the end of the book I came across this picture, it really made me smile.

Dear Dad,
My special gift to you is...
I will help you make the apps.
Love Jack.

Snowball fight

20-01-13

In the midst of the great UK snow fall of 2013 Jack has been itching to go out an play. Finally today we had some time, so we geared up and headed out. Our play lead to a snowball fight, which lead to making bigger and bigger snowballs until we destroyed the world. Then we made a snow-man, then Jack destroyed the snow-man. Then we had another snowball fight which lead to us making bigger and bigger snowballs until we destroyed the world. We then buried Jack in the snow, we tried standing first, then laying down. Laying down worked better. We then started into another snowball fight, the snowballs started increasing in size and elements of Kung-fu started to appear.
Then Jack took cover behind Helen's car where I couldn't see him. I listened and tried to pin point his location.
I tossed a snowball.
You missed, you're rubbish.
I threw another.
Nearly, but your still rubbish.
Another.
Even more nearly.
I created one of the world destroying sized snowballs and threw it. I heard a *plump*.
Jack? Did I get you.
Silence
Jack?
Silence
Did I get you?
...no.
I went to see what was up.
...got him

His new hobby

We've been on the search for a hobby for Jack for a while now. It had to be something that involved physical activity. For the last couple of summers Jack has attended football school but it was ended early last summer due to a lack of numbers. Jack was a little too young to really participate in the games and found it a bit frustrating, so he was glad when it ended and is less than keen on going back. So we put it to him, he could pick a sport and we would find somewhere he could practice it.

We looked at running, cycling, and that sort of stuff, but he didn't have much enthusiasm for those. We looked at martial arts but the local school doesn't seem very interested in new tuition. He already goes to swimming lessons once a week, but we count that more as a life skill than a hobby.

So whenever the opportunity to participate in a new sport came up we'd encourage him to try it and then examine it for suitability.
A couple of months back Jack and his Nanny came across a mobile rock climbing experience and Jack talked nanny into letting him have a go. Apparently because business was slow Jack spent over an hour traversing the wall. He came home raving about it and apparently the instructor said he was a natural.

So a couple weeks ago we arranged for Jack to have a children's introductory session at the local climbing centre. For an hour Jack climbed all over the place and had a blast. He came away with aching hands and a thirst for more. We're happy with this choice, rock climbing is just about as physically demanding as it gets, it is only as expensive as you make it and you can do it anywhere. In fact I'm kind thinking about taking it up as well.

Jack in 2013

Age: 6
Hair color: blonde
Height: 115cm
Future Occupation: Robot maker

Favourites
Color: multi-colored, he likes all the colors equally,
Game: Super Mario Bros 2 3ds
Show: Scooby-Doo
Food: Cheese and Pineapple Pizza
Toy: Mobilo
Animal: An Eagle
Friend: Finlay

Hobbies
Rock Climbing
Swim
Video Games playing and collecting.

Fond Memories
He really liked rock climbing and can't wait to go back.
Staying over at Nanny's
Laser tag party

Aspirations
Collect money and be a billionaire so that he can afford the metal he will need to make robots.
He wants to make a robot metal sonic powered by a Concord engine and send it into space.
Buy another doggy

No Tattoos in Bethleham

10-12-2012

Jack has a glitter tattoo on his forearm that he adores. He got this tattoo a couple weeks ago at a friend's birthday party and it still looks almost brand new.

Jack came home from school today and told me that he wasn't going to wash off his tattoo, they wanted him to but he wasn't going to. Ever curious as to who 'they' is to a six year old I enquired further. Jack has a school Christmas play coming up in a couple days and was told by his teacher that he needed to remove the tattoo before then.
Because there weren't any tattoos in Bethlehem.

Now I have a long documented problem with situations just like this, this is one of my many flaws that I'm trying not to pass down. I would rather Jack learned to pick his battles, at the very least better than I tend to, rather than resist just for the sake of resisting. But I have a bit of a problem with this request, and more so the reason given. In this case I know what the reason is, and it's not a good reason, so it's being substituted for an incorrect reason.
There were tattoos in Bethlehem, as well as every other place in the world, and tattoos were at least a thousand years old by that point. So I quickly verified some facts and armed Jack with them, should the subject be brought up again. An educated stance is always on higher ground.

It's taken me most of my life to accept that a good reason is rarely the reason you get. But you should always demand a good reason, just not necessarily to your dying breath as I'm prone. As far as I'm concerned, an incorrect reason is an invalid reason. Either way I don't feel that Jack should have to get rid of his beloved tattoo because of how it might look with the rest of his mouse costume, certainly not without a good reason.

Now I'm not really trying to cause trouble here, we've enrolled Jack in a CoE school and thus, I'm expecting certain, shall we say, moral clashes from time to time. I don't expect this to come to anything, I don't expect to hear anything more about it at all. But there's a principal here that I feel strongly about and clearly it's important to Jack if he was already willing to make a stand. I want him to be prepared to take the strongest position he can and know that I'm with him.

I am pretty certain that they didn't have Darth Vader in Bethlehem.
But it the films do say it was a long long time ago.

Santa's clause

Jack has seen Santa a few times already this year. He'll never pass up the opportunity, even though he knows that its not likely to be the real Santa, but they'll pass everything on. Also I think he just likes to talk to someone who's only interest is a list of what Jack wants.

About Santa Jack has it all figured out, he knows that Santa has a lot of PR work in December and can't possibly be everywhere at once, so he has helpers that do a lot of the visits for him. As for who these helpers are, I think he's going with some kind of clones, because they're obviously not elves.

On one visit Jack expressed to Santa the desire for an iPad, by which he means any iDevice that he can play Temple Run on, he's wanted one for quite a while but he's hell bent on getting one this year for Christmas. Apparently Santa assured him that if he was a good boy then he would get one. So now Jack is just the most well behaved boy that there ever there was. You can see him analysing his every move, trying to work out if its good boy behaviour. Jack is pretty sure that this was that real Santa.

It's a little annoying actually because I feel a little like now if we don't get him the device then all of this hard work will be for nothing, but these devices are expensive. Jack keeps going on about when he gets his iPad and so on. Santa, the giver of gifts, has made this deal and we're feeling bound to honour it. Curse these clones.

Six

Just some thoughts on Jack turning six.

My biggest problem with this birthday has been his change in age. For the last two years Jack's age has conjured up pictures of a little toddling boy wearing costumes and saying cute things. When people ask how old he is I just say four or five without any thought whatsoever and I get the "aw" response. But six is much more awkward to say, it doesn't project a barely coherent little boy anymore, six is a real age. "Aw" changes to other things like sentences and comparisons.

Six-year-olds can read, write and answer back with a degree of articulation and intelligence. They have choices, make decisions and have opinions. They're missing teeth and or have teeth of a wide variety of shapes and sizes. They can play games without supervision or assistance, they have tastes and a sense of humor. They're in real classes like first grade and year one. They're too grown up for the kiddie rides but not tall enough for the good rides. They get more expensive because not only do they want the bigger and more expensive things, all the child discounts and free entries disappear.

So for me, I'm not very happy about six. This year marks the beginning of a change in the role of father as well. Gradually from here on out my role will get less and less hands on and become more advisory. Until now there is nothing he has done that I have not done before but from here on out that changes, he will experience new things that I never did, or no longer can. His future is beginning to open up right in front of him and his parents have a smaller and smaller part in it.

I'm by no means just focussing on the negative here. I'm glad to see my boy growing up, I'm looking forward to seeing what he becomes and achieves. I'm just going to miss my little boy.

So with mixed feelings I wish my son a happy birthday.

Yay for being six

Super Mario and Son

Jack has a nintendo 3ds but only has one game for it so far. Super Mario Bros DS.

Jack loves the game and will play it all day long if you let him. We generally try to limit his play time to something resembling an hour a day but somedays it's nice to just let him play.

I, along with many from my generation spent most of my time playing video games when I was growing up, and I still spend a lot of time playing them now. In fact it's the subject of my degree. I'm well aware of all the stigma that's attached to children playing video games and I can honestly say that it doesn't concern me. I'm not concerned particularly about the reported effects on his imagination or anything like that. Jack created an octopus on a pogo stick out of a few pieces of one of his building sets a few weeks back and he gets plenty of exercise and all that. Sure there's a lot of really violent games out there, but no more so than movies, or dare I say it, real life. So no I don't think there's any harm in Jack squashing the walking toadstools or winged tortoises, it's a game. I personally don't see how a child playing a video game today is any different to a child reading a book. But I digress.

I often muse as the prospect of Jack, aged fourteen, bringing friends over to play video games. I'm waiting for the day when I'm not allowed to play because they'd like to win for a change. I'm sure I wouldn't be allowed to play with him and his friends anyway, being that I have every intention of being the un-coolest dad ever, but I can dream.

When I was growing up the Mario games were some of my favorites so I know the answers to most of Jack's questions about the game, its plot and characters. Jack plays along and talks to me about it, sometimes I play the more difficult levels for him, or I help him with a difficult manoeuvre. Sometimes he just wants to watch while I play a few levels. It's something that we can share and do together and I hope that it will always be so. Some parents never find something like this that they can share with their children, I'm glad that I'm not one of them.

Too many hours

30-09-12

Jack and Helen went off on an over night mother and son excursion this weekend. I'd been looking forward to having time to myself, I'd got a lot of work to wrap up before I shift my focus exclusively to my studies. So the moment the plans were official I meticulously scheduled all sorts of things I could get done and hopefully even left some time for a movie.

Saturday came and at 3pm I hugged them and waved them off. The house went quiet, so after a few minutes relaxing and getting used to the stillness I set too with my schedule. I had a lot too do, three apps to finish up and submit and quite a bit of preliminary research to do for uni. I'd planned on it taking most the night so in order to leave myself some movie time I opted to start with the smaller thing and walk the dogs.

An hour later I sat down and got to work. I started with the uni stuff.
5:00 and I could do no more. I'd built up a lengthy reading list and got to a point where I was going to need lecturer input. Excellent didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. I hopped up and made myself some dinner and took care of some housework.
6:15 I finished my dinner and sat back down in front of my computer... Here we go... I hacked away at the computer in a programming trance and pounded through the apps. As I submitted the last of the work I sat back and looked at the clock. 7:00...
So now what? It's just gone Jack's bed time and I'd finished everything. 4 hours ahead of schedule.

Never in my life have I had such a hard time filling the time. I hadn't decided on what movie I would watch because I wasn't sure I'd have the time. I had such a hard time finding one to watch that I gave up twice, only to resume the search after 10 minutes of not being able to find anything else to do. I tried to play some WoW but with it being a very busy time for the game there was a queue well over an hour long. Of course now I can think of a list of things I could have done, but you know how it it, the bored have a hard time getting un-bored. It was a long night.

Children take so much more time than you realise, they take all your attention and sap all your strength. Normally with Jack in the house my night doesn't start until 7pm at the earliest, and that's if everything goes smoothly. At which point it's a race to get everything done with what energy you have left. By the time you start your focus is already waning. I sometimes try to get work done with him around but I'm slowed to such a pace that I might not as well not even bother. Even when it's just Helen and I at the end of the night I struggle to concentrate if I have some work to do, we talk and watch TV and it really slows the progress.

So it turns out that in a quiet setting I can get work done at a phenomenal pace. Maybe this is something I should arrange closer to the end of term.

The classics

We put on DVDs for Jack when we travel. Whenever we're going camping to otherwise travelling For longer than around 90 minutes we have Jack pick a selection of DVDs to keep him entertained. The last few trips haven't seen much change in the DVD selection. There have been two DVDs in particular that have been travelling with us for a while now. One is a greatest of Roadrunner and the other is a greatest of looney tunes. Jack has watched them many times and always laughs himself silly throughout. 

Every now and then we get wrapped up in conversations about the shows, mostly around its plausibility. He seems a little puzzled about how all of these creatures can do all of these things in the show but their real life counterparts can't. Roadrunners aren't really that fast, a coyote couldn't really survive... that. Tasmanian devils are real, and mean, but they don't turn into whirlwinds.
I tell him about my favourites and why I loved them, and still love those cartoons, and Jack pretends to listen though I'm not sure he really understands why it is I love Foghorn Leghorn so much, he's always rooting for the chickenhawk.

So as he watches in the back I listen in the front and we both enjoy the old classic cartoon together.

Looney Tunes is still running on some of Jack's channels, some of the old ones, but more of the new ones. The new ones play more like a sitcom than the random zany episodes that they used to be. Jack and I watch it when it's on because it is funny, all of the personalities are there, they're just placed in a more real world scenario. For Jack to see the old versions of the characters he knows is important to me, I think something had been lost in the rediculous censorship laws of today. I'm just happy that he enjoys the old cartoons as much as I did, that little piece of cultural history lives on.

Lost Toof

So there we were at Alton towers discussing the difficulty of eating apples with a loose tooth then I noticed something. I had Jack open his mouth and I confirmed my suspicion, Jack's loose tooth had a tide line, a little etch in the tooth where it used to be attached to the gum, I gave it a wiggle and it came right out.

Jack was horrified.
You took it out!
It came out.

His eyes welled up.
I knew it was going to come out.

Jack was upset for a number of reasons. Firstly his tongue doesn't seem to be able to leave the gap alone, and every time his tongue feels the gap it scares him.

He didn't want to lose it on the go

He misses the tooth

The tooth is lonely

He doesn't want to give it to the tooth fairy

It was his favourite

Lastly loosing his teeth is another sure sign that he's getting older and Jack is still convinced that one day he will wake up 30 and not be able to have fun anymore. This is just one step. Closer to that day

I bought him an ice cream that helped.

Lost and Found

For a short time this weekend, I lost Jack.

Whilst camping at Longleat Caravan Park Jack and I were washing the dishes. Jack wrapped up his lot and I moved in to start mine.

Am I done then?
You're done.
Do I have to stay here? Can I got back to the camper?

The problem was that whole I could actually see our camper out the window of the dish washing room there wasn't a direct route to it. The route we has was rather windy. All the buildings and caravans look the same and there are little roads going off in every direction.

Do you know the way back?
Yes.

A total lapse in judgement in my part, but I was only going to be a couple minutes so I was likely to catch him up on my way back to the camper so. To be honest I didn't give it much thought at all. I said, sure head on back I'll be right there.

Off he trotted with the step in hand. As the seconds passed and I scrubbed through the dishes I began to become more and more certain that he was going to get lost. And he did. 5 minutes later I hustled back to the camper to find no sign of him.

At no time was I really worried. The campsite wasn't all that big. The people are all friendly and helpfull and the step was heavy. So he wasn't going to have gone very far and he wouldn't have been moving very fast. I had a good idea of where he would be from previous strolls through the caravan park. He had a tendency to always veer to the right at on particular junction. Also there's only one way put of the caravan park and there were security cameras. I could see the exit and may even have snapped a photo of the licence plate of the single vacating caravan... just in case. but what kind of crazy panicky parent would actually do that... If needs be I could have the whole place locked down and filled with police and search helicopters within minutes. I didn't even have to unlock my phone to make that call.

One thing that did worry me was what state he would be in when I found him. Jack doesnt like being on his own and there nothing that makes you feel more alone than being lost. I was convinced I'd find him sobbing and shaking and traumatised and never wanting to let go of my hand ever again as long as he lived.

I found Jack after about five minutes pretty much right where I'd expected him to be, as I searched I was flagged down by some kids who had noticed him wander by with the step in tow. I strode to where they pointed and found him wandering between a couple of caravans. He was quite calm, clearly a little stressed but otherwise ok. I took the step from him and we strolled back to the camper. He got a little tearful as he talked about it later, as he thought about the experience a little bit more but all in all I think he's alright.

Loose Toof

While drying Jack after his bath a few weeks ago Helen noticed that one of Jack's teeth is starting to come loose. We all had a look and confirmed that there was a slight amount of back and forth movement.

Jack is very excited because loose teeth means tooth-fairy and that means money and Jack looooves money. He's often talked about the fortune that he will eventually amount with his teeth. Apparently his teeth get more valuable as you lose them. So by the time you get to the last few, they're worth up to £20... I suppose we'll see.

Yesterday Helen inspected the aforementioned tooth again after Jack had complained that it was sore at dinner time. We'd been keeping track of the tooth's stability which had remained unchanged as yet. We had a look at found quite a bit more movement, movement in more than one dimension. We're attributing the additional looseness to Jack's recent 'football to face' incidents at football school...