He's got this

"No, Mommy, no help me. I got this."

Deep breath. Big smile.

He's got this.


H has been interested in all things "academic" learning since birth. When she was B's age she all ready knew all of her letters and their sounds. She could write them all and she'd just began her journey into sounding out words.

I look at B, and I hardly find this possible. I cannot remember H ever being as young as he is now. I know that sounds silly, but she's always just been so grown up. In so many ways.

But B, B is different. And that's okay. That's good.

B doesn't know his letters. At all. He'll occasionally ask me to tell him the letters on a book or his carseat, but that's been the extent of it thus far.

He counts pretty well, and he knows his colors. I don't *think* he knows his shapes, but I could be wrong. But really, he's just never shown an interest. H was demanding that I teach her things in a more traditional way at his age; B could care less.

My former self would have panicked, thinking he must be - gasp - behind! But not now. I know he'll get there. And soon enough, at that.

Until today.

Today is a game changer of sorts.

H asked me if I would pull out some school work for her. She's pretty much worked her way completely through five kindergarten workbooks in reading, writing, math, and a combination of them all. So this should make kindergarten fun next month, ha!

Anyway, when she asked for work, B asked, "Where's my school work, Momma?"

"You want to do work, too?"

"Uh huh." So I dug around through workbooks for something more age appropriate for him and found a letter workbook. "All right, this one's B's!"

After I set H up at her table, I sat down with B. I tore out the first page, a coloring sheet of the letter "A" with an apple and an "a" with an alligator on the back.

"Do you know what letter this is?" I asked.

"Yep," he answered.

"What letter is it?"

"I no know," he replied.

"It's a big A. It makes the aaa sound. Like aaaapple."

He nodded.

"Okay, you color this big A and apple and then we'll talk again."

I left him to work on his coloring sheet. And he really colored it. Not two scribbles and done, per typical of his coloring methods. Sure, he colored the whole thing blue, but he truly poured his heart into the work.

When he finally said he was done, I asked him again what the letter was. He didn't know. No problem. I told him again and then flipped the paper over to the little a and alligator.

"Do you want me to help you?" I asked.

"No, Mommy, no help me. I got this."

Deep breath. Big smile.

He's got this.

Again, he colored his little heart out.

Finally said, "Momma, this is hard work. It's making me so tired."

"Okay, you can be done." I picked up his "Aa" paper and smiled at him. "Wow, you sure do like blue! Do you remember what letter this is?"

"A!" he beamed.

"Do you know what sound it makes?"

"Aaaa!" he squealed.

And just like that, a switch has been turned.