NERPS

I picked the boys up from school today, and like every other day grabbed the roughly 10,000 papers they send home.

Jack had a list of simple words to learn for an upcoming spelling test. The boys are in different classes this year, so Sam has already learned most of these words. However he is, shall we say, over-enthusiastic and competitive about 'helping' his brother.

On the drive home I glanced at the list and asked Jack to try his best to spell a few of the words. The first one, “frog.”
“F-R-O-G!” Sam shouts less than one tenth of a second after I said ‘..og”
“That’s right Sam, but it’s Jack’s homework. No shouting out the answers. Jack needs to answer. You and I can do spelling words together later, ok?” Dejected, Sam agrees.
“Jack, the next word is “Nut.”
Sam can’t help himself and shouts, “I know how to spell NUT!!!!!!”
“Sam, shhh - this is Jack’s homework. Let him spell it.”
Jack, after some whining and eye rolling, begins. “N… (long pause)… E….R….P…S,”
“THAT’S NOT HOW YOU SPELL NUT!” Sam , who had been hanging on every letter doing his level best to keep his mouth shut - is unable to contain himself.
“Sam, come on,” I say, shooting him ‘the-stern-mom-look‘ in the rear view. “Jack, good try buddy. But that's NERPS. Nut is spelled n-u-t.”
Jack smiles, points a self-satisfied ‘trash talk’ finger at his brother and taunts:
“HA!!! I KNEW you didn’t know how to spell NERPS, Sam!”
“MOM!?!” Sam cries.
Jack, laughing hard now, continues: “Sa-aam, I can spell nerps and YOU CAN'T!”
Hesitant to be the buzz-kill, I knew I had to put a stop to it.
“Jack, 'Nerps’ isn’t a word.”
“So? Sam still doesn’t know how to spell it!”
I'm grateful the two were restrained in car seats.