No Mommy, Pokemon is real…

Andrew loves his Pokemon cards. The names on those cards are really strange and I have no interest in knowing about the damage level each character possesses but he feels compelled to share all his knowledge about Pokemon with me. The Easter bunny also brought new Pokemon cards so there is a new batch of names to learn and who evolved from who and 10 damage or 20 damage (those who know about this know exactly what I mean.)
This morning my son came running to me to announce he had two “legendary” characters. I asked Andrew if he even knew what the word legendary meant. He said no but he was certain they were legendary. Feeling the need for a teachable moment I showed him that I could type the word into MS Word, right click and choose “look up.” So that’s what we did. Here is what we got:
1. described or commemorated in a legend
2. retold for generations as history but unlikely to be completely or even partially true
3. very famous in contemporary society

Well definition number two caused quite a stir in my home. His jaw dropped, he looked at me and shouted “Pokemon is real Mommy!” Then he stormed away.
Shortly afterwards he returned to my desk and saw the title for this blog on the computer and then as cute as can be he said “So I guess now you are going to tell everyone I think Pokemon is real, right?” You got it kid!
But the point of this story is to show that whenever I have a chance to show him something cool on the computer I do. And you should to. Today he learned he can look up any word he chooses to use in his writing. I modeled it for him, he saw how to do it and the next time he sits down to write an email to his grandmother he will probably do the same. Knowing that he can look up words, use them appropriately in his writing will help him become a stronger writer, a fearless writer. Isn’t that the point of these tools, make our work easier?