Hidden Abilities....

One of these days these blog posts will center around Brody.  For now, he's adorable and really can do no wrong, which is very boring.  Sorry.  I give it a few more months and he'll be holding his own in the blogosphere.  Until then, enter Kai.
Kai and school do not seem to mix.  Not sure why I am surprised.  School has an agenda that did not consult him, school has a defined timetable of events that occurs during the day, and most importantly, school has rules.  School also has tuition.  Which means school had better enforce said rules, or Mommy and Daddy will go nuts.  Back to my shock and awe of  the stresses of Kindergarten.
I was under the impression that Kindergarten was going to be a happy-go-lucky time where learning is fun and effortless.  His teachers assure me that he has fun while there.  Problem is that fun may be all he has.  He will not write.  Will. Not.  Last week the printing teacher told me to leave it to her and she'll manage to get him to do it.  Today she told me she is frustrated.  I kept calm and said I would speak to Kai about obeying.  Inside I am laughing. Lady- you've only had him 7 weeks.  Let me talk to you about frustration in 5 more years.
You've got to get his number.  You know, hit him where it hurts.  They can't threaten him (legally), but I can.

Me: "Kai.  I am going to tell you something."
Kai: "Is it about toys?"
Me: "Kind of."
Kai: :What?"
Me: "You are not allowed to tell your teachers 'no'.  You must learn to print and that is final.  No tv, computer or discussion of new toys until you are printing at school."
Kai: Stunned silence. Banshee screams of terror.  Head hits the table in a full out attempt to throw a tantrum. Apparantly this hurts.  He stops crying and asks "How long?"
Me: "Until you do it, and your teacher tells me you are good at it."

Now this may sound harsh.  It kind of is.  But I cannot bear the idea of him telling teachers "No."  The teacher told me he was polite and said "No, thank you" but etiquette does not enter the picture here. Kai tells me writing is the hardest thing and he hates it.  I explain that it is because he never does it and blah blah blah......then somehow or another the words slip out of my mouth "You cannot color well, so writing would be very hard."
Kai: "I can too color."
Me: "You never color and tell me it is no fun.  All your color pages are scribbles.  We could practice coloring to help your writing you know..."
Kai: "Okay."
I am a bit shocked, but get him some paper and crayons.  I tell him to draw some shapes.  He does.  Squares, triangles, circles- they are pretty good.  I explain that writing is all about crayon control and we try to shade in the shapes, staying inside the lines.  Enter the scribbles.  You know, the kind where the crayon tip is flattened out from pressing so hard.  We try a little bit of light shading.  Progress.  I told him to draw something- anything he wants. He then proceeds to draw this incredible picture of our house.  The house, the roof, the windows, the steps, flowers, oak tree, driveway- even the fence and the cats.  Acorn on the lawn.  Flippin acorns.  On the lawn.  I am stunned.  He has NEVER drawn a recognizable object in his life.  EVER.  Leave it to Kai to pull this talent out of thin air.
He decides we should write a story about the cats to go along with the picture.  I will "scribe" and he will illustrate.  Deal.  The story is of course about our very unusal cats who possess special abilities like combine harvester driving, tap dancing and in this case: crystal mining. So far, the story is about a page long, and needs two more pictures.  He tells me he can't wait to get up in the morning to draw them.  The cats are assembling a model snake train for crystal mining, and the "readers need a snake train picture to give them the full effect."  Of course they do.