White and Nerdy

The kids are big fans of the Weird Al song "White and Nerdy". If you haven't checked out the video, you must. Anyway, the kids have worked out a little dance, and they like to say, "I'm White and Nerdy!" even when the song isn't playing. Since they are our kids, they don't have a negative connitation with the word "nerdy" (yet).

Anyway, it turns out that one of the kids falls firmly into this category. Gwen's teacher called yesterday to let me know that out of a possible 102 points possible on the PALS (I don't know what it stands for, but it is some achievement test they give kindergarteners), Gwen scored 101. They say it ain't braggin' if it's true, so I'll say it -- my kid is smart. The thing that blows my mind about this score is that we are not the kind of parents that push-push-push our kids along -- we don't have time. Sure, we read to them, we encourage Gwen to practive reading, and we help her with her homework (what little she has, and most of that is optional), but we don't go out and get study guides for her to work through. Okay, I did buy study guides a couple of years ago -- after all, my nerdiness probably approaches geekdom -- but I never got around to taking them out of the bag, let alone applying them. And Gwen positively loves school -- to the point that I worry that Xavier is an underachiever when he is mostly indifferent (not white and nerdy, that one.) I don't know where she gets it. But I am really, really proud of her.

Anyway, if that high score was not enough, she's been hinting that her vision's bad because she wants to get glasses. She was flipping out that she would miss a week of school when we go to the beach later this month -- much as she wants to go, Grammy and Grandpa -- until we assured her that her kindergarten teacher would be sending a stack of homework for her to work on (clearly, we had to ask her teacher to put that together.)

Yup, she's a chip off the old blocks.