Yeesh! Teach a Kid to Read

Fueled by Pudding

Lukas, who's 8, not surprisingly has been reading for some time now.   In fact, just this past week his teacher informed us that he was reading well past his grade level now.  It was pretty fantastic for a kid so highly math inclined his early reading had suffered by comparison. 

But, that being said, when kids learn to read it can have certain drawbacks. Let me proffer an example.

It was sometime after 10:00PM the other night when Lukas came down from his room.

His approach was announced rather clearly by the thumping of the stairs as he trod down them.  Mrs. LIAYF and I were in the kitchen, having just recently finished making lunches for he and Annabelle for the next school day.

"What's up Buddy? Why aren't you asleep?  I asked him.

"I'm hungry" he let us know.

"Okay, tell us what you want? But it'll have to be quick" Mrs. LIAYF interjected.

"Some warm milk with cinnamon. That always puts me right to sleep." he replied.  It seemed reasonable.

Then he opened the refrigerator to grab the milk, and after a brief scan of the contents added "And some chocolate pudding!" He had obviously seen a plastic cup of it sitting there on the shelf above the milk carton.

"Pudding? Not the best idea right now."  I then let him know. "Yeah, too much sugar right at bedtime."  Mrs. LIAFY chimed in, backing me up.

"Uh, No" was all Lukas said in reply.  I looked over then and saw him pointing up to the chocolate pudding, laying on it's side with it's top seal showing.

I then glanced in there,  and Lukas read the words aloud as I was reading them off the packaging to myself.  "Sugar Free Snack Pack Chocolate Pudding".

I looked down at him to see a huge smile on his face. He was pretty amused, and proud of that zinger. Then I glanced over to Mrs. LIAYF who was also trying to hold back her laugh.  It didn't work, as we all immediately burst out into amused laughter.

What could we say? Our boy had undoubtedly had exposed the glaring flaw in our argument.  No, we couldn't say much, especially with the laughter.

So, I placed a cup of pudding, along with a spoon on the counter top as his just reward. What would it hurt this one time.

And, after enjoying his sugar free chocolate pudding and a little warm milk with cinnamon, our satisfied and sated son was off to bed.

Where he fell asleep pretty darn fast.