Lauren & Sam

It’s not all caviar and baby wipes, mate

Reading

Sam was being a little petulant about homeworking and tidying last night, so I was hanging out with him as he sorted his room out. He complained that he didn’t have enough space, and blamed it on all the books people bought him expecting him to read them. He then said that we (Claire and I) expected him to read like Lauren does, reading all day. This struck me as a very perceptive comment; it’s not really true, but it’s not so far off, and certainly insightful for a seven year old. I told him that actually I’d be happy if Lauren would be more like him and play more (which is true), and that we’d like him to read more purely because we think he’d enjoy it once he got into it more. I don’t know if this satisfied him, but it seemed worth his consideration at least.

This reflects the greater problem he has with comparing himself to his sister. That’s a pretty normal thing for a younger sibling to do, I think, and I can think of a number of families where it’s been a factor for a less smart child (even when they are still intelligent in their own right). What’s interesting is that Sam is, to the extent you can quantify such things, probably just as bright as Lauren, though in different ways. He’s better at maths, for example (he solved one of her homework problems last night, mainly because it contained the word Pikachu to tempt him in), and my dad has often commented on his analytical mind during conversation. So our challenge is to show him that he doesn’t need to compare himself to Lauren at all, and if he does do it he needs to improve his accuracy!

Oh, I should add that he’s a very good reader, and if he lags behind Lauren it’s purely because he doesn’t get the inherent practice that comes with doing it for fun. He’s a lot better at Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds though.