Best. Homework. Ever.

As lessons go, this exercise may not have achieved quite the desired result.

Here's what AJ should have learned:

1. Mastery of spelling this week's list of words. 
2. Why it's important to remember to ask your teacher if you really need to do your spelling list homework when you aced the pre-test.

Here's what AJ actually learned:

1. Pudding can be made in less than 10 minutes.

AJ brought home his usual grid of spelling exercises Monday, but claimed he shouldn't have to do it this week since he'd already shown he could spell all the words. However, in previous weeks when this was the case, the teacher didn't send home the assignment. We didn't make him do any of the homework Monday, but told him to check with her Tuesday.

He forgot.

And so last night, to minimize the end of the week homework crunch, and to perhaps give him a little more incentive to remember to talk to the teacher, I insisted he do one of the three assignments on the grid. He looked over his options and then started whining, because there were two he deemed as relatively easy, but he didn't think he could do the third one: spell your words with pudding.

Remembering the boxes of instant pudding in the cupboard, I sensed an opportunity to avoid further whining, get some homework done and make a bedtime treat all at the same time. Opening the cupboard, I asked AJ if he wanted to spell in vanilla or chocolate.

He picked chocolate.

Beyond the surprise that we had pudding in-house, AJ was delighted that I let him (mostly) make it himself. I had him cut open the package, measure out two cups of milk, pour it all together and begin whisking. I set the timer on the stove for two minutes.

Within 19 seconds, he wanted to know if he could be done. I showed him the timer counting down. He kept stirring. And looking at the timer. And stirring. And looking at the timer.

"This is hard!" He said at one point as he switched the whisk into his other hand. To his credit, he never stopped stirring.

"It's good exercise," I reminded him.

At last it was done. I reset the timer for five minutes and put the pudding in the refrigerator to "quick set."

While we waited, I managed to get AJ to finish one of the other assignments on the grid. And then came the moment he'd been waiting for.

Dropping a big glob of pudding onto a plate, I started quizzing him on his list of words.

Of course he had to lick his finger after each word.

He had the most trouble with the word "thought". First he forgot the 'u', later the 'h' and a couple times the 'g'. He'd also struggled with the word on the earlier assignment we'd just completed. How he passed it on the pre-test is beyond me.

In between each word, I'd either smear the pudding around or add some more. AJ would then joke in over-dramatic fashion, "You wrecked my masterpiece!"

This apparently is a very funny line when you're seven, because he laughed hysterically every time.

Though not as much as he laughed when I suggested it wasn't pudding on the plate, but rather poop.

Oh, yes. I know how to speak seven-year-old.

When all was done, I let him lick the plate. He was quite happy, not even thinking about the fact he'd just completed two of his three homework assignments. Homework he may not have even had to do.

And the best part of all?

"AJ," I said this morning, "Spell 'thought'."

"T-H-O-U-G-H-T." He got it right the first try.

I guess he did learn something. Instant pudding rules!