Impressed

Yesterday, I spent the day with Cameron at school. He proudly showed me "chain work," which has long been a mystery to me. Cameron would hop in the car after school and crow, "Guess whaaa-aat! I finished the seeee-veeen chain!" It was clear that I should be impressed but my attempts to figure out what, exactly, the seven chain was were unsuccessful. So, yesterday, Cameron showed me that he can count by eights (8,16,24,32,40,48,56,64) on a chain of eight sections each with eight beads. The end result is that he can figure out that eight squared is 64. Wow. I am impressed.

I'm glad that the eight chain was the first work he showed me. I mean, I know that motor skills are important and all but it just isn't quite as impressive to watch your kid write his initials with shaving cream and then rub his hands in it. Although I do admit that it was very impressive to watch him clean up the mess -- carefully wiping the table down with a sponge, pouring the dirty water from a tub into a bucket, carrying the bucket to the sink, wiping out the bucket and tub with a towel and then carefully folding the towel and packing up all the supplies. Makes me think I've been totally underestimating him -- I should put him on diaper duty. For his own good, of course -- I'm just thinking of his motor skills.