Scene: Harriet�s kitchen, early Sunday afternoon. Harriet and her husband are putting away groceries

AJ: (comes bounding down from his room) Hey, Mommy!

Harriet: Hey, AJ! [this is their usual form of greeting]

AJ: Guess what? I just figured out fractions.

Harriet: What do you mean?

AJ: Well, it�s like if you have � and you want to add it to 2/4 you get �. You just add the top number.

Harriet: That�s right, as long as the bottom numbers are the same. Good job! [AJ is no longer listening � he has bounded back whence he came]

Harriet�s husband: Wow. What�s that called, the nominator?

Harriet: Numerator? Or is that the top. I think the bottom one�s the denominator. Or is it the other way around?

Harriet�s husband: We�re in trouble.

Harriet: No kidding.

* * * * *

AJ is making a profitable use of his long weekend. Yesterday he spent the morning working on his bike-riding skills and reading magazines in an odd coffee-shop in a Victorian house where we each sat in a leather club chair in front of a cold fireplace while in the adjacent room a group of belligerent people argued about dues. After lunch, he accompanied me on a shopping trip with my friend and her mother, a well-known children�s book author. The trip included a stop at a Japanese supermarket, where AJ kept asking me what everything in Japanese said and I kept replying that I had no idea. I am amused that he thinks of me as a human Babel-fish, but he is rapidly defining the boundaries of my knowledge these days.

Upon our return, AJ found a new scooter waiting for him, a present from his dad who is conflicted over his efforts in teaching AJ to ride his bike. My husband is concerned that he�s pushing him too hard or perhaps not enough or, if it�s possible, both at once. He had read that learning to balance on a scooter can help kids learn to balance on a bike without the terror. And so AJ has spent most of the last day and a half in his helmet and pads, scooting as far as we�ll let him go. He�s figured out how to coast and how to jump � our 9-year-old neighbor showed him how the wheelie bar works, although he�s yet to try it.

AJ seems to want to match his mastery of new physical skills with new mental ones. When he was looking for something to do after our afternoon trek to skate (me) and scoot (AJ) around the road by the baseball field and along the river, I printed out some kids Sudoku puzzles (the simpler 4-box block version) and showed him how they worked. They were perfect for him. We did a couple together and then he figured out a couple by himself. He pronounced them too easy, and so I�ve promised him more difficult ones tomorrow.

* * * * *

Scene: Harriet�s laundry room, after dinner. Harriet is moving clothes between machines. AJ is sitting on the floor with some magnetic letters and numbers, which he is applying to the side of the upright freezer on the other side of the room.

Harriet: Okay, AJ, let�s go upstairs and get ready for your bath.

AJ: Aw! But I just want to do one more math problem!

* * * * *

AJ, I�m writing all of these things down for you. Because when, in a few years, you are complaining about your homework, I will show them to you and maybe you will remember how much you love to learn, how exciting it is to discover things. And also, I will need all the ammunition I can get.

* * * * *

And if anyone's still reading, I'm still accepting possible solutions to yesterday's limerick challenge. Click back if you want to take a crack at a limerick beginning, "There once was a man from Zimbabwe..." or to read the entries already submitted in the comments secdtion.

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