Dinner Discussions

It all began with a new 3rd grade student I'm working with. After Day One, I noticed that she had a really limited vocabulary. Words like "whirl" and "twirl" aren't in it. Day Three, I realized that "buns" isn't in it either. (She read the word as "bones" and when I asked her if that made sense, she looked at me as if it made as much sense as anything else she was attempting to read--which may be true, since I'm not sure that she understands a lot of what she reads!) You don't know what buns are? Nope. Hot dog buns? Hamburger buns? Nope. You know--the bread you put the meat between? Has this child never eaten at McDonalds?! Nope.

So I was telling the literacy specialist about her limited vocabulary--he called it lacking an academic vocabulary--(academic? BUNS!) and said, "Who uses words like "twirl" and "whirl" in their homes?" "Ummmmmm--we do," I think, but don't say. And then he says he'd bet she's struggling in science and social studies too, because (fill in the blank) who talks about science and social studies in their homes?! Uh--shall I answer this?

Recent dinner conversations have centered on poison dart frogs and breeding fruit flies to feed them. (Thanks Eric). And no, I'm not kidding.

And that's just the beginning. Sorry kids. You have a dad who's a walking encyclopedia and a mom who starts a conversation by saying things like, "If you were stranded in a hotel room and all your family was missing and you couldn't speak the language and you'd been told not to leave the room or really bad things would happen to you . . . what would you do?"

I guess normal families don't do that.