Thursday 9 October 2008

Sorry, there's a lump in my throat and something in my eye.....

Husband was home early today and was accordingly in charge of boy-wrangling, including homework supervision and force feeding of fish fingers. After the offspring were in bed, Husband showed me First Born's school Language Jotter - an exercise book where they practice creative writing and do guided reading exercises. It was brilliant. First Born has always been a one-of-a-kind sort of child, but reading his little creative writing compositions just confirmed for me how brilliant he is. (I know I am biased but I don't care.)

One of the exercises required him to write a few paragraphs that were openings for stories - just the openings, not full stories - so they had to be immediately arresting, grabbing the imagination. First Born did not disappoint (original spelling left intact!):

"And I want all are men to be transported to France imeditly!" Hitler sighed. It wasn't all that easy being the German leader.

Or how about:

Mr Carnigee put down the phone and gave a sigh. Knock! Knock!
"Come in" said Mr Carnigee. In came a tall, thin man wearing a pinstriped suit and his features were hidden under his wide brimmed hat, except for his red eyes.
"I think you and I should have a chat, Carnigee!" he said.
"No! No! No!" said Mr Carnigee as the man moved closer......

Or there is always the character he had to create to star in a story. He had to draw a picture of the person he imagined and describe him in detail. He came up with "Ray" who apparently, and I quote "enjoys a cigarette now and again and is very fond of olives". He is also "a little fussy". I think I might have met this guy.

But the best of the lot was entitled "My Heros":

"My heros are my parents becase they've helped me through my life, and on countless times they've convinced me that I can do things I thought I couldn't, and they've hardly let me down. An example of when they convinced me was when I was nervos about going to rugby and my mum told me to just have a go and try my best."

*Sniff* I think we are going to have to keep him now.

15 comments:

  1. He certainly sounds brilliant to me and very sweet too!

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  2. Awwww. I think you should keep him too. Not to mention that he will clearly keep you in your old age with the profits from his bestselling-thriller-writing career.

    My little bro once decided to enliven boring vocabulary homework (you know - copy the word out three times, then write a sentence using it) by writing a novel in one-sentence instalments, featuring "the mad man". So:

    pencil pencil pencil
    The mad man ate a chocolate and pencil pie for his tea.

    Eventually his teacher tired of this and wrote in his jotter "It is time to make friends with a normal boy. Let the mad man go to hospital for help."

    I preserved the jotter somewhere and last time I looked at it I still wanted to cry with laughter after about five pages.

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  3. Oh that has me all choked up too! How sweet. Just when you think you want to give the kids away they do something like that and it makes you fall in love with them all over again.

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  4. Oh bless him! he sounds clever *and* adorable - a rare and wonderful combination!

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  5. Aw, he sounds scrumptious! I like the Hitler opening vee much and couldn't suppress a smile at the fact you've "hardly" let him down.

    Kids are ace sometimes. I hope he never loses his sparkling imagination.

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  6. I know what he means, but the image of the red eyes/wide brimmed hat that first came to mind made me laugh :)

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  7. I am almost crying reading that! God - hormones are surging now. I want children. Sob!

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  8. I like how you've "hardly" let him down! Very sweet. How old is this fellow?

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  9. "I think you and I should have a chat, Carnigee!"

    I'm going to be saying that all damn day.

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  10. What a hoot but also very aaaahhhh. Shades of Daisy Ashton's "The Young Visiters" (similar spelling too).

    Yes, I'd forgotten our son/brother's madman thing. Publishable, I'd think.

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  11. Oh that's so sweet! And the "hardly let me down...?" Honest, too!

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  12. What a talent! I think you'll have to frame that last one and refer to it often throughout the teen years.

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  13. Was going through my archives and I found a comment that you left, where you said your son is also dyspraxic. I wanted to let you know that I'm creating a whole page on my blog devoted entirely to dyspraxia, and it will include links as well as lots of our own story. :)

    Hope things are going well with you! This post was so sweet :)

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  14. OMG! This was both so funny and so sweet. I laughed outloud when I read about Ray, the olive eating-oocasioanl smoker who is fussy!

    Your son is BRILLIANT!

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