Because the “blizzard” was anticipated, we pretty much knew yesterday that school would be canceled for today. Book Boy’s teacher sent home a “snow day” assignment, to be done if school was canceled. The assignment included questions about the weather forecast, what ended up happening, etc. One last question asked each student to describe what he or she had done when school was out.
Here’s what Book Boy actually did today:
Watched 90 minutes of TV
Played DS for an hour (note that screen time was COMPLETELY over before lunch time)
Read throughout the day – at least three books
Went outside and explored the snow in the back yard
Played checkers with Tim and Book Girl
Played with both sisters
Read books to BBaby
Took a long bath and played with BB in the tub
Did his homework
And how did he answer that homework question about how he’d spent his day?
He listed what he had for lunch and dinner, and then said “I mostly watched TV and read all day.”
Sheesh.
Book Mama 
Could this be the sin of recency? A friend of mine told me that when her son was in pre-school, he was learning Japanese, almost completely without her knowledge because the teacher covered it in the morning. He NEVER talked about it so she thought he had only picked up a phrase here or there (literally all she had heard him say was, “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer”). Imagine her surprise when he was able to ask for more water and a napkin in Japanese! But that morning hour of language immersion was just so unimportant to him by 6:00 when she picked him up.
Perhaps that’s how Book Boy thought of his adventures in the snow or his game of checkers. That was soooo long ago!
Can I just say I am impressed by your son reading 3 books in one day? Wow! Are they chapter books or is he just a fast reader? Getting my almost 8yo daughter to read is incredibly hard. I guess the name “Book Boy” is very appropriate!
And about him writing about his day…ha ha. That’s kids for you. I bet most of his classmates will have something similar.
I tend to let the screen time rules go on snow days. But, yesterday’s snow was so great for playing in that the boys were probably outside more than they were inside yesterday. Today, though, we are still home and it is below zero out there so we will see how day two pans out.
Gal, I might go with your theory except that he had screen time *before* he did any of the other things on his list.
Katertot, he’s definitely a fast reader. (He’s almost 10, and in the fourth grade.) I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I don’t really know what he read that day – I’d say probably a big fat Garfield book, a graphic novel, and a regular novel of some sort. He probably didn’t finish all three books that day.
inthefastlane – 3 hours of screen time *is* letting the rules go – he usually doesn’t get any screen time on school days!
That’s just the way it works I think. That’s why when I ask my kids what they did all day they always answer, “I don’t know.” They did stuff but it can’t be simplified enough for them to wrap their heads around it.
If I ask the bus driver/teacher’s aid I get a comprehensive answer that covers everything they did from the moment they stepped on the bus to the moment they got home again. I love that woman.
Usually I get better answers from my kids when I ask more specific questions: Who did you play with? What did you guys play together? etc.