On copying

Last Wednesday night, the kids and I were sitting at the dinner table, discussing the best and worst parts of our day.  (I copied this idea from my clever sister-in-law who calls it with her own girls the rose of the day and the thorn of the day.)  We were onto the thorns, when Tommy said, "well, mine wasn't such a pointy thorn.  It was sort of a flatish thorn, because it was math and it was so hard, but then, Mommy, M (a classmate) let me copy from him!  So I got them all right!"

I asked if he understood the answers and he faux regretfully told me that he did not.  So I told him that copying isn't a great way to actually learn things and then after he went to bed I emailed his teacher.  She replied quickly, saying she hadn't realized that there was copying going on, but she promised to have a conversation with the class.  It wasn't such a big deal, and I didn't think to mention it to Tommy again.  (This is mostly because I was focused on the "hard minus-es" that were causing Tommy so much angst and I'm pleased to say that I think we have pushed through.)

Fastforward to last night, when I thought to ask Tommy about copying and he said in a delighted tone, "Well, Mommy, now people have to copy from me!"  When I asked for more details, he said, "I'm not bad at math anymore -- but R says he is horrible, and so he copies all my answers."