There was a scene in "My Family and Other Animals" that made me laugh out loud (well, there were several scenes that did that, but this one in particular rang true to our homeschool.) I laughed because I thought of this post and of my sweet Anne-with-an-e (and even had to describe the scene to her later, knowing she would appreciate it.)
A new tutor is trying to make some academic headway with Gerald, who really just wants to get away and go be with his favorite creatures rather than tackle math. The tutor drones on with a story problem, but suddenly notices that Gerald is playing with a bug on the table. Seizing the moment, the tutor changes the wording of the story problem to include slugs and the volume of food they would eat in one week, vs. two, and with varying numbers of slugs.
Gerald stops toying with the bug on the table, looks up at the tutor and says, "What kind of slug?"
Oh, yes. I love that child.
3 comments:
Oh, this brings me back. How I loved those books. I'm going to have to read them to my kids. Especially as my Eli (5) is exactly a "what 'kind' of slug" type of child.
We have the Amateur Naturalist, and it is an extremely interesting book to have on the shelf.
I would love to see the PBS story of Gerald Durrel. Many thanks for writing about it in these interesting posts.
[BTW, about the "What kind of slug" story--that is exactly the kind of thing Patrick would say, only in his case, he would be talking about fish. He is truly obsessed!]
My Anne is a "what kind of slug" child, too. :-)
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