Cees at 9 Years Old

Cees is 9 years old now and it is fascinating to watch him grow and develop. He is totally addicted to reading, reads everything he can get his hands on. He complains that he can't find new good books in our house anymore. His current favorites are Animorphs, Terry Pratchett, and Calvin and Hobbes. I wouldn't mind him reading Calvin and Hobbes if he didn't get inspired by Calvin's behavior. He sees Calvin as a role model :-) The picture on the right shows how he likes to make silly faces when I try to make a photo, just as Calvin does.

Apart from reading, his hobbies are mostly computer and Nintendo. We limit the time he can do this, because he would be totally happy to get out of bed in the morning, start playing Nintendo, stop a few times to get something to eat, and play Nintendo till really late at night. And somehow his mean parents think that would not be ideal and severely limit his Nintendo time. It's not fair! as he would say :-)

He is a big lego builder too. Sometimes he spends hours together with Tim, playing with lego or duplo and making up all kind of adventures.

He is being homeschooled, just finished 4th grade and ready to go into 5th. Academics come very easy to him, but his attitude about them could use some improvement. Because a lot of things are so easy, he balks at having to really work at something. He is on or above grade level for almost everything but writing. The thoughts are there, but the mechanics just don't work well enough yet. He is slowly improving, though. And his keyboard skills are getting better too, so that we will be able to use the computer pretty soon for more writing projects and bother less with the handwriting. I am sure it will all come together if we give him some time.

He is turning into a quite responsible boy, almost always willing to give a hand when I need one. He loves taking care of baby Erik when I try to do some housework, and he is able to make a simple sandwich lunch on his own if needed. He also has been great in helping me pick up toys lately, although I have to admit that the monetary incentives help with that. He is saving his money for a gameboy, which he desperately wants to own. I use that desire to find him jobs with which he can earn money. So we both win, he gets his money, I get more work done around the house than I would otherwise.

He is still doing karate, he is up to a green belt now. He also had swimming lessons for a while this spring, still looking into summer classes. He is swimming fairly well, but his technique still needs quite some improvement. Then there is gymnastics, which he did the whole school year, good to help him develop his coordination and strength.

Another activity is the cub scouts, where he is a webelo now, they do all kind of fun things, like camping and learning to use a pocket knife. Last year they even visited a submarine and a battle ship and stayed overnight in the ship, which was really cool for the boys. They went to play golf last week, which was good, because that is not something I would do with them :-)

We are doing a lot of hiking this summer, to his utter dismay because 'he HATES hiking!'. Of course, this person who loudly declares to hate hiking at home, is also the one who is running in front and having the most fun of all. So I have to admit to just ignore the complaints and take him hiking anyway. Such a horrible mom he has :-) He would much rather stay home and play computer and never go anywhere :-)