A Sign of Intelligence?

Thursday night we attended a Back-to-School event for parents and teachers at Sam's new school.  While talking to one of the moms (that I'd just met), we decided to go find the boys' teacher to visit with her before she left.

*I should note that at the time of this conversation Sam had attended a mere three days of school.*

We were talking and Sam's teacher says to me...Oh, I have to tell you what Sam did today! (very lighthearted, kind of chuckling...not like there was some horrible, major incident)

She has a rule in the class that only a certain number of people can be in each center at a time.  She has numbers by each center and a hook for each number where the kids hang a name tag when they go into the center.  So, there's never any question about who is in a center and whether or not it is full.

You can see the numbers and hooks here...
This also happens to be the center this story is about.

So, she tells me...

Sam wanted to go in the "blocks" center today, but it was already full, with three people in it.  So, Sam took a little girl's name tag off one of the hooks, carried her name tag to her locker and placed her name on the hook by her locker. (This is where all the hooks go when they're not in centers.)  Then he took his name to the, now empty, hook by the blocks center and placed his name on the hook and went into the blocks center to play.

His teacher immediately recognized what had happened, because she knew who was playing in the blocks center before Sam arrived.  She had him put the little girl's name tag back at the blocks center and he had to go play somewhere else. Although, she got some of the blocks that none of the kids were playing with and brought them to Sam who was playing somewhere else on the floor...I told her she didn't need to be that nice to him! (Because I know Sam and I know he'll now just take the blocks out of the block center to play with them elsewhere when the blocks center is full...she'll soon know Sam this well too!)

We all got a good laugh out of this story...although, I'm thinking to myself, "We will be having a conversation about this when we get home!"...and I'm a little embarrassed about what Sam is already up to in class after only three days of school.  And then, the mom that was talking with us (who happens to be a psychiatrist) says, "Wow!  That's a sign of intelligence!...he didn't just go in the center when it was full, he made sure his name tag was on the hook for that center and took the other girl's away...problem solving!"

My response..

That sounds like manipulation to me!...a sign of intelligence?

Although, I have to admit that I was secretly a bit relieved that she (the psychiatrist) identified something good in Sam's working the system to benefit him...but maybe she was just trying to make me feel better.

I talked to Sam about it the next morning...

"Ms. Kara told me what happened when...What should you have done?...What are you going to do next time?...etc."  At one point I asked him, "What else could you have done?"  To which he responded, "Well, I could have added a 4 and then one more person could go in the blocks center...there were three, add one more, ME!, makes four!"  Not exactly the answer I was looking for, but I even have to admit that's a pretty creative idea!

I've warned his teacher that if extra numbers start appearing along side the numbers she already has by the centers, she knows where they're coming from!  I'm imagining Sam getting a crayon next time and drawing a 4 by the blocks center.

My goodness, he keeps us on our toes!