That was my best "r," ever!

Aidan and I are at the library, in my first attempt to work on homework away from family distractions. At home, a 10-minute assignment can take up to two hours, as Aidan wafts away on various tangents.

We are beginning with a blank two-sided form containing 4 French verbs to be conjugated into présent and passé composé tenses. Usually, his verb sheet comes home, partially-completed, with a few jottings in the margins. I'm hoping we'll have time to get through more than just this sheet in the 45 minutes I've set aside for spending in the library.

Three minutes in, and he's completed all the présent forms for "respecter," and the first two forms of passé composé. At "Il a respecté," he stops and, in a loud whisper, remarks, "Whoa! That was my best "r" ever! Look, Mom! Have you ever seen such a beautiful "r?" And he was off ... into the land of forming the perfect printed letter. I've been encouraging him to print, up-to-down, rather than his habitual down-to-up. Now, it's more common for him to begin letter formation from the top, but he still writes, "i," starting from the bottom line.

He showed me how he likes to draw d's and b's, starting with a straight line, then he forms a precise intersection of the line and the partial circle, to complete the letter. I have to admit, it's a really nice-looking "d." Then, he showed me how the perfect "z" actually has a smaller top horizontal line than the bottom, and it needs to have a perfectly diagonal line joining them. He explained, if he were teaching kids to print this letter, he might show them that they could print an "N," then turn it on its side to become a "z." But he pointed out that some kids might get tricked into drawing an "n" (in lower-case) by mistake, and when they turn that letter to its side, it will look nothing like a "z!"

For the letter, "s," he likes to draw a smaller curve for the top, with a bigger curve on the bottom. And again, there's no disputing his carefully drawn, "s," is nothing short of perfect.

He circles his best work, individual letters on the page, and speculates if Mme. ever wonders about all his "scribbling."

Next, he proceeds to circle all the lower-case u's that were pre-printed on the page, and points out that they're not right. They don't have the vertical line that comes down on the right side. I hadn't noticed this detail before, but explained to Aidan that it's only a different font. He asked, "What's a font?" and a feeling of dread welled up inside me as I imagined yet another tangent to veer us away from the verb conjugation. I gave him a quick answer that it's just a "style of lettering," and encouraged him to get back to conjugating "heurter," verb #2.

So, despite my repeated efforts to bring him back to writing out his verbs, we've managed to be here nearly an hour and only completed two "ER" verbs. They're all "ER" verbs this week. Nothing special or irregular.

Bewildering as this may be, this is all we've completed tonight. About 15 minutes ago, he stopped altogether and stared forward. His body slumped into his chair, and he told me he just wants to look for a book. I offered to look for one for him, if he tells me what he has in mind, and he said, "I don't know what I want, yet. I won't know until I see it."