Book Smart

Jace is smart. I may have mentioned that before. I've probably said it more than once because it's not only true, but flabbergasting and awe-inspiring.


Scott (my husband) and I aren't dumb, but we're not Jace-smart either...he apparently got some great recessive genes. Not only does he have incredible, sparking blue eyes and blonder hair than the rest of us, but he's witty, clever, and a little geeky. What a delightful mix!

Last night Jace told me about a book he'd gotten from the library at the school.

"Mama, this is a fiction book about a baby polar bear who gets lost and while he's waiting for his mama to find him he builds a snow bear to keep himself company. Some of his friends come to help him. Can you guess what animals his friends are? Here's a hint: they're arctic animals."

I guess a fox and a rabbit but he had to help me with the rest. "Let me spell it out for you. M-u-s-k..."

"A musk ox?"

"Right! Good job, mama. How about something that starts with a w?"

"Walrus?"

"Nope. W-o..."

"Wolf?"

"Right!"

He told me the rest of the animals then went on to explain, "This is obviously a fiction book. If it were a non-fiction story then I'd expect the wolf and fox to eat the rabbit and the duck, at least! They'd probably try to eat the moose and the musk ox and the bear too."

See...clever.

Recently, I met with Jace's teacher to talk about his experiences in school. At home he seems perfectly social, but apparently at school he has some minor issues with understanding how boys his age play. He had to go to the Principal's office a week or so ago after being involved in a fight on the playground. He was playing cops and robbers with some boys and two of them started fighting. Jace was a cop and tried to arrest them, not getting that they weren't just role-playing. He didn't get into any trouble, other than having to move his behavior clip down one color -- from blue to green, basically from excellent to good. When I picked him up hours later he was still upset and kept repeating, "I just don't understand. They were robbers. Why couldn't they just play robbers?"

Jace's teacher did say that she has seen improvement since he began in Cub Scouts. I know that he's getting something from it and that he enjoys it, but after this past weekend, Scott and I aren't sure we do. We went camping with the Pack and Jace was probably the best behaved boy there. In fact Tyler and Gracie were better behaved than many of the kids. If acting his age means that Jace should run amok, not listen, push, pick, and pester...well, I don't know that he needs to act his age.

I don't want to raise a socially awkward child, I'd prefer Jace's social network just followed directions, knew the rules and followed them. Too much to ask? Yeah, probably. I just never knew parenting a smarty pants like Jace would be so complicated...and Gracie and Tyler likely won't be any different. It's gonna be a long haul, as parenting often is, luckily there's an end in sight...Jace plans on moving out when he's 63 years old.