Smart Lex
As part of “Screen Turn Off Week” this week, Lex’s school is doing a reading challenge. For each block of time spent reading (15m for the lower grades, 30m for the upper grades) the kids earn an “otter” (their mascot). The class with the most otters by the end of the week earns a special treat. The kid in each individual class with the most otters will also get recognition. Lex has been pretty uninterested in this challenge, but I’ve been writing down the time he reads and he submits it at school each morning. He was telling Alan about it tonight and Alan asked how many otters his class has. 52 so far (tomorrow is the last day). Then Alan asked how many otters Lex personally has. Lex did some counting in his head and came up with 24. 24! That’s almost half the total for the class! I made sure to tell him that he may be receiving some sort of recognition tomorrow. I’ll try to get the final count from him tomorrow and let you know :)

The best part is that he totally doesn’t care about this challenge. His reading habits haven’t changed and he reads because he likes to read. Special prize or not, he likes to read. I love it!

Update – 5/7/11 – Lex came home with a little wooden picture frame to color, his prize for reading the most this week. He also came home with a free book. He said that all seven kids who brought in reading slips this week got a free book. All seven kids! Out of nineteen. Sad.

Funny Lex
At dinner tonight I noticed the variety of fruits and veggies on Lex’s plate and said, “What a beautiful, colorful plate you have Lex. Are you going to eat any of it?” Without hesitation he said, “Sure, I’ll eat the plate!” and leaned over and started chomping playfully on his plate! Laughter ensued! I really wanted a picture because he looked so funny, but he protested. When Alan suggested they pose together Lex thought that was funny enough to warrant a photo. I agree!

Yummy!