Last night at dinner Bennett was trying to give a summary about something he heard earlier in the day and seemed to be having a very difficult time accomplishing this simple task. This concerned us enough to park there for a while and talk about it. You assume that if your kids are in school, they are being taught how to write, research, think critically, explain themselves verbally and in the written word. This is not always the case we found out. Or maybe it's happening, but the teachers need the parents to reinforce the message at home. The dinner table seems to be the perfect place for us.
We didn't let him off the hook so easily. He kept saying, "You know...it was something like that...I can't really explain it...it was just...well, you know....". No, Honey. We don't know. And we want to help you learn the how to summarize something you hear or read. You'll need this the rest of your life. Gavin felt the need to pitch in some brotherly advice: "Bennett. You seriously need to know this stuff in high school. You have ALOT of papers to write in Civics." After this admonition, Bennett accepted his fate.
Thus began The-Night-Of-Book-Summaries-At-The-Dinner-Table. Seriously - everyone was way too excited about this (minus Bennett - but he jumped on the bandwagon soon enough). The object was for each of us to take our most recent book and give either the main idea or a summary about it (both concepts were explained in detail). It was challenging. It was fun. We all enjoyed listening to one another (except Gavin was Mr. Interrupter, that's all I'll say about that).
Who doesn't love to talk about a good book?!
Everyone had so much fun the first go around, they begged to do another book. Oh no! What monster did we just create?!
My how times have changed. Used to be, the kids were impressed if we gave them coasters under their cups at the dinner table. Now it takes much more to impress these people and keep dinner interesting.
Would anyone like a side of interesting, intellectual, stimulation with their dinner? Just pull up a chair, you're bound to get one at this house.
