Class is in session

From How's House

One of Jack's favorite things to do is teach a pretend class. This started approximately 30 seconds after his first day of preschool in October 2007, and continues now that he's in kindergarten.

He used to just retreat to his room and (loudly) sing songs he learned in school, although his teachers swore he never sang in class. Now he gives lessons, uses the behavior tricks his teachers use and basically carries on as if he is running his own kindergarten. It happens pretty much every day after he gets off the bus, and he also carries out class at Pops & K's on occasion.

Jack likes his pretend class so much his Christmas gifts in recent years (and coming up in a few weeks) are related to his teaching career. A nice big calendar he can use to teach his students what day it is, a CD player to help lead songs, a chalkboard on which to write. He even has an activity book (which to me looks like second-grade phonics work) that he'll pull out and work through just for kicks. And he gets things right with very little help.

(Quick side story: Kristie went to the parent-teacher conference Wednesday, and Jack is doing much better with his behavior issues (not 100 percent, but the improvement is dramatic in our eyes) and continues to be academically at or above grade level. Example one: He figured out whale begins with wh, which I guess is good for a 5-year-old because it's a complex concept. Example two: Each of his teachers gave him an advanced vocabulary test. He scored 16 of 20 each time, although he missed two words on the second test that he'd gotten on the first. But he also got two right he'd missed on the first, which means he only missed two words total. I'm calling Yale Monday.)

I basically told you all that to set up this video, which I took yesterday morning as Kristie and How were preparing food. It's Jack, in How's living room, "reading" to Kevin from Dr. Seuss' "The Sneetches and Other Stories." Positively adorable.