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Next belt test: Green belt, March 12!
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Money Matters

Last weekend, Charlie and I are sitting at the dining room table, just chatting, and he happened to mention that he had some checks he needed to deposit. He has been tutoring someone in ASL off and on via videophone, and after every few sessions, he gets a check to cover a few sessions at a time. We had opened a savings account for him back in September with his first couple of checks. Now he's ready to deposit more.

I decided the time was ripe for a teaching moment. I had him get his quarterly statement, which had just recently come in. He brought it over to me, and I showed him the money we had initially deposited. Yup, he remembers that okay. There's $38 in there.

Then I showed him the entries for the next 3 months that each had 6 cents. He gets a perplexed look on his face and signs, "But I didn't put that in there!"

So I explained how interest works.

He gets a wise, understanding look on his face and says, "So I guess I should put that other $200 in there, huh?"

Now you must understand that we recently had a very serious misunderstanding, and I am no longer willing to trust that I have completely understood him perfectly. I'm quite willing to believe I did not really see him say $200. So I said, "You mean $20, right?"

"No, $200."

"You do not have $200."

"Yes, I do."

"Where?"

"Up in my room."

"Nuh-uh.....Show me!"

Off he goes to his room. He's up there a few minutes, and then he comes back with this HUGE wad of cash. It's about 3 inches thick. Mostly fives and ones.

Now, I knew the kids work for an hour each day at school. Some help out in the office, some work at cleaning, and Charlie works in the cafeteria during the little kids' lunch. For this, they get paid. I thought it was $5 per month. Occasionally I will see a candy wrapper in the kitchen trash can of a type of candy that I have never bought before, so I figured Charlie uses his $5 per month to get himself a special treat. And that's fine.

But no, it turns out they get paid WEEKLY, not monthly. And Mr. Charlie will occasionally buy himself a treat, but for the most part, he brings the money home and stuffs it in a drawer in his desk.

By the time we finished counting all the cash and the $15 in checks, the kid had $250 sitting there.

I told him it can't gain interest sitting in the desk drawer. And if someone steals it, it's gone. Safer in the bank. His answer? "Well, I didn't KNOW I should put it in the bank."

Yeah, well, I didn't know you had anything WORTH putting in the bank!

Next field trip: Drive-through teller, learn how to make a deposit and read the receipt.

I think he has more money in the bank than I do now.

Aging Gracefully

Martin Luther King day. Charlie has an appointment with an oral surgeon. To back up a little, Charlie is about to get braces. After the initial appointment with the orthodontist, we were asked to go see an oral surgeon, because there were some bright spots on the x-rays they wanted checked out.

So here we are, Charlie seated in the surgeon's chair. The surgeon examines him, examines the digital x-ray, and then asks, "How old are you?" Charlie answered that he was 14-1/2. The surgeon mutters, "His dentition is more mature than that."

I was busy interpreting for Charlie, so the ramifications of that statement didn't sink in until later, when I had a chance to process it in mommy mode instead of interpreter mode. I spoke with the surgeon later by phone and asked him just how much more mature the dentition was. His initial guess from memory was 16, but after looking at the films again, he said Charlie has the dentition of a 17-year-old, but to remember that this isn't an exact science.

I'm not quite ready to believe 17. When Charlie was found, they estimated he was 2; if he is now truly 17, that would mean he was actually 4-1/2 when he was found. There's a BIG difference between a 2-year-old and a 4-1/2-year-old, and I'm really having trouble believing they were that far off. I think the truth is probably somewhere between his legal age of 14-1/2 and 16.

What am I going to do about it? Absolutely nothing.

In the deaf school, you have until age 21 to get a regular high-school diploma. If you can't attain that, you can get a certificate of completion from the school. Charlie is shooting for the diploma, but he's at a disadvantage to start with, not knowing English as well as his peers yet and starting from scratch. He's in the 7th grade now, but he can stay in high school through age 21. If I change his legal age now, that would severely curtail the amount of time he has to achieve this. I think he is right on target with where he needs to be, and socially he is fitting in well with his peers. His attitude is sometimes more mature, but that's okay; it just means he sets a good example.

I really can't see short-changing him on the amount of time he has to get his diploma and graduate. I see no benefits whatsoever to changing his legal age. Besides, he knows his birthday and that is part of his identity. I think it would be a jolt, after all the adjustments he's dealt with in the past year, to suddenly be told he's older than he is.

I did tell him, but I also explained my reasons for keeping him at age 14, and he's fine with that. He seems to take everything in stride.

Besides, I don't want him to start asking for the car keys just yet.

It does explain the mustache, though.