Jack Lately

** One evening last month as we were gathered as a family for our evening scripture study and prayers, Jack said something that caught me off guard and gave me a little glimpse into his brain.  "I can't wait for the second coming.  Because I can finally ask some questions.  Will there ever be a time machine?  What was first, dinosaurs or humans?"

** Our piano teacher was 8 months pregnant when the following conversation happened right after Jack's lesson:
Jack: I think she's pregnant.
Me: (laughing)
Jack: She has this big belly (gesturing to clarify).  Is she pregnant?
Me: (still laughing) Yes.
Jack: I KNEW IT!

** The following week was another Jack Quote to remember.  Late in the school day, Jack's grade level had their maturation classes.  The boys and girls were separated into two groups, and parents were encouraged to attend with their child.  I'm really glad I was able to be there with Jack and hear the same things he was hearing, and we could further discuss some of the topics as we drove home.  Later that afternoon we attended the only soccer game Cat played with her school soccer team and when it was over and Cat and her friends and the other kids and I had all assembled, Jack said loudly, "I learned about puberty today!" which got a good laugh from everyone, especially one of Cat's favorite teachers, who exclaimed that Jack's proclamation was the highlight of her day.

**The kids received small Nerf-type guns in goodie bags from a party at Ben's office.  They loved blasting the darts around, until the suction cup worked so well that Jack couldn't get his dart back.  He tried in vain to shoot the first dart down, and after several attempts, managed to get a second one stuck.

**Jack was excited to receive his first piano trophy for 3 years in a row of good scores at the Ensemble festival.  He was also very anxious to find out how it was put together.  And very sad when he couldn't reassemble it.  (But Mom saved the day and put it back together for him this time.  Maybe I shouldn't have, so he wouldn't be tempted to take the next one apart?)

**All year Jack's class has been working on learning the names, locations, and capital cities of the US States.  Every couple of months they'd be tested on a different region, and at the beginning of May they had a test on the entire country.  We practiced a lot with Jack, using a lot of family time in the car to quiz him and to have little game show type competitions between Jack and other members of the family.  During one longer drive to Cat's soccer game in North Salt Lake, Ben and Cat were both competing against Jack and we had some good laughs.  Eliza was the scorekeeper and I was the host and judge.  Luke participated by offering random answers here and there.  Responses from the menfolk included Cheese, Potato, and Triceratops, plus variations on plausible answers such as Oregon City or Topic-Uh.  In addition to quizzing Jack in the car or other settings, he listened to or watched this video about 700 times, and I tried to help him remember the locations and capitals of the states that were giving him trouble using little mnemonic devices (examples: Mary and Ann are friends -- Annapolis is the capital of Maryland; we connect with people through the heart and Hartford is the capital of Connect-icut; Double D -- Dover is the Capital of Delaware; Vermont is kind of shaped like a V).  Well, all of the work paid off because he only missed a couple of questions on the test!  Woohoo!  (But thank goodness spelling didn't count because he got creative with some of the capitals: Boycee, Dezmoi, Rallay, Perrie, Shyan, and Conquord.  Since Ms. C told me spelling wouldn't count, I decided not to focus on that.  She said as long as she could tell which capital they were naming she'd give credit.  Thank you, Ms. C!)

**Jack is still loving the Wings of Fire series he discovered in the fall.  We listened to Book 1 as a family and Eliza is now hooked too.  So since Jack received the first few books for his birthday, he's been reading them out loud to Eliza.  They'll read together in a bedroom or on the couch, he'll read to her while she does her chores, and he'll even follow her around if she needs to go somewhere else.  Also, as we're walking through Costco and Eliza pushing him in a cart.  That was her idea.

**Jack's class had an auction at the end of the school year, using the points earned by donating items to the auction.  Our family donated several items, including children's novels such as Hatchet, Bridge to Terabithia and My Side of the Mountain that I bought for $1 from the Scholastic book order.  This is what Jack came home with.  (He said his friend brought it, and that they wanted to swap auction donation items.)