Jessa, Ben and Their Brood: Making a (Diaper) Mountain out of a Mold House

[momma2seven]

Oh for goodness...a 6 sided octagon, a cirercal, all the -el endings. 

[Sew Sumi]

9 minutes ago, queenanne said:

If it was Spurgey's, then I'd be kind of impressed. ;)  Otherwise it's horrible.  Clearly he must have had some part in it or he wouldn't have called the squashed house shape as a hexagon, no?

Jessa said in her post that it was one of the cousins, so it just dawned on me that I have to rule out Josie. Duh! 

Money's still on Michael. 

[queenanne]

It's also still funny.  It was so riveting as it unfolded, I forgot to pay attention to the Henry corner to see what cuteness he was up to.  

I still think Jessa should've included a disclaimer that the spelling was "as told to", though.  

[momma2seven]

Makes sense to be Michael...he spelled the endings like his own name instead of -le like they should be. How old is he? I can't keep track.

[Sew Sumi]

I think he's about 6, so the writing would be about on par with what a first grader would know. 

[queenanne]

27 minutes ago, momma2seven said:

Makes sense to be Michael...he spelled the endings like his own name instead of -le like they should be. How old is he? I can't keep track.

Oh, OK, that's cute.  I take back the "horrible" comment.  Sorry Michael!!

[BitterApple]

Aw, I wanted to see more of Henry playing with his dollhouse.

[kalamac]

I was happy to see Henry playing with the dollhouse. I get the feeling the howlers wouldn’t have been allowed to touch something so stereotypically ‘girly’. 

And well done Spurge, knowing his shapes.

[floridamom]

I don't think that was Spurge's 'shapes' work on the board. He couldn't even reach it. He's too young for that. I noticed the abhorrent spelling first. ...ovel??? That should be an easy word to spell. Work on the penmanship too. I thought Michelle was the penmanship police with her homeschooling program. I remember her saying it on the show.

[Churchhoney]

9 hours ago, momma2seven said:

Oh for goodness...a 6 sided octagon, a cirercal, all the -el endings. 

Must be Jill. 

[Zahdii]

3 hours ago, floridamom said:

I thought Michelle was the penmanship police with her homeschooling program. I remember her saying it on the show.

That's a laugh.  Years ago someone went to an event the Duggars 'entertained' at.  They bought a Duggar book and went down the line collecting autographs from all of the family that could write.  Then they posted pics.  Once they got to the lost boys the handwriting was terrible.  None of the letters were evenly spaced or the same size, and were badly formed.  It looked like kindergarten work and some of those kids were well over the age of ten.  Michelle might have pretended to work on that stuff when she only had a few kids, but like everything else, she stopped bothering at some point and never looked back.  I'm fairly certain that a number of those kids will be considered 'functionally illiterate' when they're adults.

But in this case, Jessa said that the work on the whiteboard was done by one of the cousins.  How old is Spur's oldest cousin?  How many could be old enough to draw shapes and label them?  Someone should have corrected the spelling, though.  Kids can't learn to spell if they're not told when they're doing it wrong.

[sometimesy]

Spurgeon is a smart little fella. Dammit, they NEED to get him some proper education. I hope this isn't a prelude to where he will be getting his education. I can just imagine Spurgeon learning about bankruptcy while Jessa nurses the newest Seewald and lounges on the couch, OR he can go to a real school and Jessa can humblebrag about her brilliant child and have the day to herself (which means taking the preschoolers to the TTH).

[Natalie68]

16 hours ago, queenanne said:

If it was Spurgey's, then I'd be kind of impressed. ;)  Otherwise it's horrible.  Clearly he must have had some part in it or he wouldn't have called the squashed house shape as a hexagon, no?

Is it wrong the 1st thought was Jackson did it?  He may be a vampire.  He NEVER ages!

[louannems]

Poor Jackson, soon he will be a short, little,  balding,  wrinkling middle aged looking young man!

[FakeJoshDuggar]

On 1/25/2018 at 11:09 AM, Zahdii said:

That's a laugh.  Years ago someone went to an event the Duggars 'entertained' at.  They bought a Duggar book and went down the line collecting autographs from all of the family that could write.  Then they posted pics.  Once they got to the lost boys the handwriting was terrible.  None of the letters were evenly spaced or the same size, and were badly formed.  It looked like kindergarten work and some of those kids were well over the age of ten.  Michelle might have pretended to work on that stuff when she only had a few kids, but like everything else, she stopped bothering at some point and never looked back.  I'm fairly certain that a number of those kids will be considered 'functionally illiterate' when they're adults.

But in this case, Jessa said that the work on the whiteboard was done by one of the cousins.  How old is Spur's oldest cousin?  How many could be old enough to draw shapes and label them?  Someone should have corrected the spelling, though.  Kids can't learn to spell if they're not told when they're doing it wrong.

The only cousins old enough write are Josh and Anna’s kids. Mackenzzieey is 8 and the next M’Bop kid is close behind. 

[Sew Sumi]

Michael is six. I already put my vote in favor of this being his handiwork.

[sometimesy]

At least no one has to worry about them getting into the pentagon, they will be so confused by the 5 sided hexagon and 6 sided octagon.

THIS is an example of them destroying a little mind. It's so easy to imagine them believing in people riding dinosaurs now...grrrrr

[Sew Sumi]

Well, Jessa obviously coached Spurge before filming, otherwise he would have known the difference between what was (poorly) written and the actual "shap."

[Marigold]

You guys saw the picture of Jessa holding the two boys on her lap? Covering her belly, looking very pale with flat hair?

We called that a while back. Wonder when this baby is due?

[Caracoa1]

The majority of the Duggar children may be functionally illiterate but I guarantee you...Jim Bob and Michelle can read and write!

[kokapetl]

Cirercel? How the hell are they pronouncing circle? Is this one of those American things, like un-com-for-ta-ble, sexual harris-mint, meeyor and fie dollars?

[Westiepeach]

8 minutes ago, Kokapetl said:

Cirercel? How the hell are they pronouncing circle? Is this one of those American things, like un-com-for-ta-ble, sexual harris-mint, meeyor and fie dollars?

You are seeing the results of the SOTDRT at work ...

[Rabbittron]

Whoever taught Spurgeon the shapes would be a great SOTDRT teacher.

[BitterApple]

That dismal "shaps" lesson is proof positive of why you shouldn't have five children back to back and attempt to homeschool them. I know Michael's just a kid, but damn. Not one word is spelled right.

[Marigold]

Once again, jessa shows bad judgment when posting.  

NO WAY in hell would I post that on my FB account because I'd be embarrassed about the spelling errors and then worry people would think we are a pack of idiots. 

Jessa, who has thousands of followers, posts this and doesn't anticipate everyone laughing and mocking the "shaps" lesson?  How is that even possible she didn't see that coming?????

Jessa might need to take a seat with Derick and Jill for dumb posts.  At least Jeremy is just posting big books. 

[bigskygirl]

I really need to update my glasses and/or get my vision checked again because I thought you said Jeremy is posting big boobs. *whistles*

[louannems]

3 hours ago, Marigold said:

You guys saw the picture of Jessa holding the two boys on her lap? Covering her belly, looking very pale with flat hair?

We called that a while back. Wonder when this baby is due?

I've checked the Instagram accounts, and DFO, but I can't find the picture of Jessa with the boys in her lap.  Where is it?

[ginger90]

This tweet has a link to Henry’s 11 month album. There’s a picture of Jessa and the boys in it:

Is that it ?

[Heathen]

44 minutes ago, Marigold said:

Once again, jessa shows bad judgment when posting.  

NO WAY in hell would I post that on my FB account because I'd be embarrassed about the spelling errors and then worry people would think we are a pack of idiots. 

Jessa, who has thousands of followers, posts this and doesn't anticipate everyone laughing and mocking the "shaps" lesson?  How is that even possible she didn't see that coming?????

Jessa might need to take a seat with Derick and Jill for dumb posts.  At least Jeremy is just posting big books. 

It's a child's handwriting, most likely Mackynzie's or Michael's. The spelling and penmanship are about what I'd expect from kids their ages, let alone kids homeschooled by Ofsmuggar Duggar. Did you spell everything correctly when you were his age? 

[GeeGolly]

She should have explained tagged post - #cousinsplayingschool #workingonspellingandshapes #stilllearning. 

[BetyBee]

Those kids are adorable.  What a happy little guy Henry is.

[dargosmydaddy]

On 1/25/2018 at 12:31 AM, BitterApple said:

Aw, I wanted to see more of Henry playing with his dollhouse.

Is it just me, or does he have a piece of it hanging out of his mouth at the very end of the video? (Something purple and plastc-y.)

[queenanne]

1 hour ago, BitterApple said:

That dismal "shaps" lesson is proof positive of why you shouldn't have five children back to back and attempt to homeschool them. I know Michael's just a kid, but damn. Not one word is spelled right.

I felt for some reason like a grownup asked Michael and he dictated them out loud, like spelling bees.  I don't know why, but the handwriting struck me as more "unstructured bland schoolgirl printing" than any six-year-old's printing. I could of course be wrong.  It also seems like the kind of thing you might do if you were a little kid asked to spell "circle" aloud.

[Zuleikha]

Assuming it was the 6-year-old cousin and not the 8-year-old cousin, I think the spelling is pretty typical. I have a child that age whose spelling is similar. The current public school pedagogy (at least in my area) is that it's more important for them to be comfortable writing than to be focused on correct spelling. They have spelling tests, but they're common sight words or 3 and 4-letter words--not hexagon, octagon, etc.

 

I was happy seeing Henry playing in the dollhouse. Maybe this generation will relax a little on enforcing strict gender roles.

[Temperance]

@Zuleikha they were saying it was more impotant for us to be comfortable writing than focused on spelling when I was in school many, many years ago. This was when the computer was still relatively new. It will be more true for the spellcheck generations to come.  I also like @GeeGolly's hashtags.

It's never surprising when a Duggar/Bates woman is pregnant. They're all young women who've been taught that one must do nothing to prevent pregnancy. It would be more surprising if she wasn't. 

[Churchhoney]

16 hours ago, Marigold said:

 

Jessa, who has thousands of followers, posts this and doesn't anticipate everyone laughing and mocking the "shaps" lesson?  How is that even possible she didn't see that coming?????

 

Because she's totally committed to the vision of her family being the best of the best? And they're all so below-standard, and so ignorant of the fact, that every one of them would also consider it not just okay but top drawer? 

Isolation plus arrogance is a combo that leaves you open to making a lot of ridicule-inducing mistakes. And she only learns about each individual mistake after she commits it. See: dirty diaper pile. She -- like the rest of them -- is so clueless in numerous ways that she never realizes there's a more general problem, I'd bet. 

By the same token, I'm not too concerned with a little kid's spelling. What i fear with the current Duggars-being-educated generation is that the kid won't be much more educated when it's 16 and ready to become a professional in some field it's observed for 45 minutes. 

ETA: The spelling does puzzle me. A school curriculum that downplays spelling usually aims for freedom and fluency instead of memorization and, ultimately, for creativity or for understanding and reasoning rather than rote work. But since the Duggar approach has always been rote memorization, and the last thing they seem likely to encourage is reasoning or deep understanding or creative freedom, I'm puzzled. And also kinda worried that the new-generation schooling could be so uninformed and lackadaisical that it not only doesn't produce thinkers but doesn't produce people who've memorized anything either. 

Edited January 27, 2018 by Churchhoney

[queenanne]

I'm kind of dismayed it looks like they're so clearly and obviously aggressively avoiding phonics.  Shouldn't this be the time when someone imparts the lesson to Michael that not all combinations of sounds leading to that "ULL" sound, are spelled "EL"?

[Spencer Hastings]

The spelling and drawing of the misshapen “shaps” are right on par for a normal 6 year old.  Our current phonics curriculum would not focus so much on the spelling but the sounds of the words.  Our math curriculum wouldn’t even give it a second thought.  My school does not even require spelling to be taught.  As someone stated before, the goal is to make them feel comfortable reading and writing than making sure they’re spelling correctly.

It’s clearly just an older cousin playing homeschool with his baby cousin.  These shapes show no indication about how smart the cousin is or the quality of education he is receiving. 

I post this quality work from my students all the time if I find it mildly amusing. I’ve never considered people judging my kids on incorrect spelling or imperfect drawings. 

[sometimesy]

This wouldn't be a big deal if one of the kids playing teacher was 'hosting' the short vid, but Jessa must know Spurgeon was memorizing childish crap and she could have gently corrected the lesson before letting him put in the effort. 

[Spencer Hastings]

41 minutes ago, sometimesy said:

This wouldn't be a big deal if one of the kids playing teacher was 'hosting' the short vid, but Jessa must know Spurgeon was memorizing childish crap and she could have gently corrected the lesson before letting him put in the effort. 

Truthfully, Spurgeon is probably memorizing where the shapes are in relation to each other on the board, not the actual shapes or spellings themselves.  If Jessa were to show him an actual square or switch the shapes around on the board, he probably wouldn’t get them right. He would just repeat whatever shape was in that spot before.

[sometimesy]

J

46 minutes ago, Spencer Hastings said:

Truthfully, Spurgeon is probably memorizing where the shapes are in relation to each other on the board, not the actual shapes or spellings themselves.  If Jessa were to show him an actual square or switch the shapes around on the board, he probably wouldn’t get them right. He would just repeat whatever shape was in that spot before.

Yep, I know, it's just the video would have been cuter if the play teacher was there prompting Spurgeon, just to confirm it was just in fun. 

[Sew Sumi]

But that would ruin the illusion that Jessa seems to want to portray as Spurgeon the Toddler Genius Reader.  

Edited January 27, 2018 by Sew Sumi

[Marigold]

22 hours ago, Heathen said:

It's a child's handwriting, most likely Mackynzie's or Michael's. The spelling and penmanship are about what I'd expect from kids their ages, let alone kids homeschooled by Ofsmuggar Duggar. Did you spell everything correctly when you were his age? 

 

 I'm sure it's a child who wrote that and not Jessa. Most likely Michael. 

 But you know it's going to be laughed at and everyone is going to goof on it . Just explain Michael wrote it.   The way she left it is just begging to be snarked on.  She kinda walked into that one...

The actual writing and lesson doesn't bother me.  I find it insane that Jessa was so unaware of how it looks on social media.  She got slammed for the dirty diapers not too long ago, which surprised all of us that she had no clue it was weird to stack up poopy diapers.  Now the "shaps" lesson.  

You can't make this stuff up!  

[ginger90]

[Marigold]

8 hours ago, Churchhoney said:

Isolation plus arrogance is a combo that leaves you open to making a lot of ridicule-inducing mistakes. And she only learns about each individual mistake after she commits it. See: dirty diaper pile. She -- like the rest of them -- is so clueless in numerous ways that she never realizes there's a more general problem, I'd bet. 

 

That describes Jessa perfectly.       Isolation + arrogance = social media blunders! 

[Sew Sumi]

Looks like Jessa called out the reinforcements when it got too hot in the kitchen for her. 

[kalamac]

I have to say, even if Spurge was just repeating what he was told, rather than sight recognizing the shapes, he still has a pretty good memory for a kid his age, to get through them all without prompting. I've known 3 year olds who would have lost track part way through if they were just trying to parrot back something they'd been told.

Here's hoping someone (it'll have to be Ben, won't it - pay attention Ben), notices this and pushes for proper schooling, before he becomes as dull and uninterested as his aunts and uncles.

[BitterApple]

42 minutes ago, kalamac said:

I have to say, even if Spurge was just repeating what he was told, rather than sight recognizing the shapes, he still has a pretty good memory for a kid his age, to get through them all without prompting. I've known 3 year olds who would have lost track part way through if they were just trying to parrot back something they'd been told.

Here's hoping someone (it'll have to be Ben, won't it - pay attention Ben), notices this and pushes for proper schooling, before he becomes as dull and uninterested as his aunts and uncles.

Hell I'm 39 and can't remember where I put an object I had in my hand five minutes ago. The Spurge definitely seems like a bright boy. I hope Jessa doesn't blow it all to shit with the Duggar brand of homefoolin'.

[crazycatlady58]

1 hour ago, BitterApple said:

Hell I'm 39 and can't remember where I put an object I had in my hand five minutes ago. The Spurge definitely seems like a bright boy. I hope Jessa doesn't blow it all to shit with the Duggar brand of homefoolin'.

Just wait  till you hit 60.

[Sew Sumi]

...or lose your readers when they're on the top of your head (well before 60).