AJ�s vocabulary obsession continues. This morning he brought one of his favorite Calvin and Hobbes books down to breakfast and began asking about some of the words he didn�t understand and wasn�t sure he could figure out from context. This morning I explained �hypothetical� and then had to explain that Calvin wasn�t really using it the right way; he was simply trying to cover his tracks. I also explained stunt (as in �stunt double�) and �philosophical.� For a 6-year-old, Calvin certainly has a very large vocabulary.

When I was in first grade, I became one of the guinea pigs for my school�s pilot gifted and talented program. That first year, they gave us each a yellow and blue paperback copy of Roget�s Thesaurus. Each week we wrote and illustrated a story using as many words starting with a given letter as possible. I loved reading the thesaurus. I loved all the new and exotic words (not the least of which was �thesaurus� itself). I also loved that there were no real definitions. You could look up a word and try to figure out what it meant from the collection of other words next to it. AJ definitely has the same penchant for figuring things out and he�s falling in love with words. In this respect, Calvin and Hobbes have had an excellent effect on him.

AJ will move onto other types of vocabulary exercises when he starts Spanish this afternoon. He is very excited about the class. Truth be told, so am I. I didn�t really think about the fact that it gives me an extra hour of work time on Monday afternoons. Hooray!

2 people said it like they meant it