I arrived a little too early at Rowan's school this afternoon and decided to go inside and have a look at what he was up to. What I saw, was quite amusing and a little bit concerning at the same time.

He was busy with an activity that involves sticking different coloured plastic pegs into a foam pad with a grid of holes in it. The idea is that you place each colour in a different row and then sort the rest of the pegs accordingly. Rowan, however, has thought of a different way to play this game and this was actually not the first time that I have seen him doing this. The plastic pegs have holes in them at the top - the exact width of the bottom of the peg so Rowan thought it obvious that you should stack them vertically rather than sort them horizontally.

The first time he tried to build a tower his teacher came running over within the first three stacked pegs and corrected him. But the thing that amused me most about today was that I watched Rowan as he watched his teacher move about the classroom and when he was sure she would not be looking, he quickly started stacking one after the other. By the time his teacher saw this construction the tower was already as tall as he was. So, she came over and showed him how it was supposed to be done. Rowan was disappointed and pretty much ignored her.

Now I know I am supposed to be concerned about the fact that he didn't pay any attention to the teacher but it was late in the afternoon, he was tired and his dreams had just been crushed.

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