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Hi everybody,
I pressed the wrong key
and my letter got sent without finishing the question. Any way, I have an
eight year old son that asks a lot of questions which is great BUT lately
every time I answer his question he comes back with NO that I'm wrong and
answers it himself but wrong. This is driving me crazy! Has anybody else had
their kids doing this to them? And how did you handle it.
Thanks, Lori



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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In a message dated 10/31/02 11:29:35 AM, lwillson7@... writes:

<< Any way, I have an
eight year old son that asks a lot of questions which is great BUT lately
every time I answer his question he comes back with NO that I'm wrong and
answers it himself but wrong. This is driving me crazy! Has anybody else had
their kids doing this to them? And how did you handle it. >>

You could say "Then why did you ask?"
You could ask "How do you know that?" (in a neutral tone of voice) and see
whether his "wrong" answers are based on speculation, or a misunderstanding
of something he heard or saw, or what.

He'll grow out of it. Marty used to say "ACtually, mom..." lots and lots of
times and the dispute some answer or account of mine. It was almost just a
habit with him.

You could, after the two answers are 'on the table,' say "Okay, let's look it
up and see which of us is right."

Sandra

Pam Sorooshian

<<Any way, I have an
eight year old son that asks a lot of questions which is great BUT lately
every time I answer his question he comes back with NO that I'm wrong and
answers it himself but wrong. This is driving me crazy! Has anybody else had
their kids doing this to them? And how did you handle it.
>>

It'll pass. Smile and enjoy his developing self-confidence. Practice
saying, "Ahhh," in a noncommittal way. Others will correct him, you don't
need to do that - he'll figure whateveritis out later - it is not important
that his information is accurate, right now. He's just playing with the
whole idea of him having his OWN knowledge and the realization that you
could be wrong and so on. If you can say things like, "Gosh, you know so
much," without sounding sarcastic, that would be a nice thing to say to him.

Pam Sorooshian
National Home Education Network
www.NHEN.org
Changing the Way the World Sees Homeschooling

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Betsy

**"Gosh, you know so much," without sounding sarcastic, that would be a
nice thing to say to him.**

Hi, Pam --

I like "Ah", and I'm going to add that to my repertoire. It sounds so
much more professorial than "Huh?" and "Um...", which is how I sometimes
respond to my son's pronouncements of truth that don't ring true to me.

I sometimes say "How did you figure that out?"

Betsy

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In a message dated 11/1/02 1:52:07 PM, ecsamhill@... writes:

<< I like "Ah", and I'm going to add that to my repertoire. It sounds so
much more professorial than "Huh?" and "Um...", which is how I sometimes
respond to my son's pronouncements of truth that don't ring true to me.

<<I sometimes say "How did you figure that out?" >>


You guys are so nice!!

I told Marty, when he was in that phase, that he needed not to be a
bullshitter and if he was just going to make stuff up pretty soon people
wouldn't have faith in his word, and since I didn't want him to have to undo
a bad reputation I wanted him to start ONLY saying things he could back with
fact, starting right then.

He took it okay.

Sandra

Betsy

Hey, Sandra. I'm probably not that nice. In my case my 8 year old,
this year and last year, was expressing his ideas about how the world
works. He was telling me his "theories" which he thought might be true.
Some of them make my head spin. Others made me wrinkle my forehead in
confusion. But it wasn't a teenage BSing thing that he was doing. That
might have gotten a less sweet response

Betsy

** << I like "Ah", and I'm going to add that to my repertoire. It
sounds so much more professorial than "Huh?" and "Um...", which is how I sometimes
respond to my son's pronouncements of truth that don't ring true to me.

<<I sometimes say "How did you figure that out?" >>


You guys are so nice!!

I told Marty, when he was in that phase, that he needed not to be a
bullshitter and if he was just going to make stuff up pretty soon people
wouldn't have faith in his word**