The Jeopardy Game

My grandson Ashby is a serious student. He takes great pride in what he learns and practices all of the time. He has been learning sign language for at least the past six months. Every week Ashby joins a group of toddlers and Mommies as they learn new words and practice old words. He has moved from single words like cracker to concepts - where is Nana's dog Zed? or Where is the man's hair for Granddad.

His mom and dad reinforce his lessons by practicing the words and rewarding him with a "Good Ashby" affirmation. This week he started training Nana. The first time I caught on to my tutorial he and I were sitting at the window watching the world go by. He would point and look at me and I would say what we were looking at and he would give me the 'yeah Nana' nod. Then we moved on to the wall, the floor, feet, eyes, hair, - well you get the picture. When I got it wrong he would give me a second chance.

He likes to run through all of his key words and phrases first thing in the morning, when he gets up from his nap and most importantly when it is getting close to dinner and bed and he is winding down. I have gotten smarter under his unflinching tutelage, he never cheats, so now I am quickly going through the A list of bird, jogger, dog, car, train, wall, window, eye, hair, feet and the list goes on.

Today I got to go to music class with him. A dozen or so little people with their attendant parental units, one nanny and one Nana were in attendance. The instructor was great, the wee ones were wee ones. Some of the little girls were focused on the program, Ashby was focused on an escape plan. He circled the group, checking for any possible enemies or other untoward behavior. He checked out all of the visible and reachable sippy cups. But he kept a close eye on the proceedings. You could almost hear him saying, "Listen you guys, this is a classroom and you are all jumping around like jumping beans. Sit down, pay attention and then go home and practice." And practice we did when we got home. He got out the napkins and we did the scarf dance. We stomped, clapped and kept time on our knees. I didn't know the best song that has lots of hand clapping, thigh slapping and hand waving so I had to revert to the only one I know "We're going on a bear hunt" We have hunted a lot of bear today. Every time he thinks my mind is wandering he flops down legs out and off we go up the hill, look for the bear and run back down.

Thank you Ashby, I had a great time! I had forgotten how much fun it is to dance with scarves and I promise to practice my words every morning.