joy intertwined with torah sort of

Elazar realized he wants the full version of Geometry Dash.  He asked his friend to count up his cash and he has $1.12.  The app is $2.  He asked if he can buy it.  He said from his saved up money.  He had 78 - 35 and now minus another 2 so he has 41 dollars and he will have to buy head phones for his tablet.  I wanted him to think about the purchase for 2 weeks, but he said it was only $2.  So I said okay, just finish up the first paragraph of Shema.  I like try to intertwine as much as possible the excitement of getting something they are yearning for with either a chag or with a learning milestone.  He only had 2 lines left of the first paragraph of Shema, since he's been reading to earn play time on the tablet.

His reading is improving ridiculously quickly.  He read the two lines pretty quickly and crowed that he's also earning 2 hours of play at the same time.  I feel pretty comfortable about his reading.  Even if he doesn't read any more Hebrew between now and age 12, I'm certain that with a year of practice he will be absolutely fluent and capable of all davening/brachos etc. required of him after his bar mitzva, the "shagur b'fiv" goal.  I complimented him on his reading and he grinned.  Then he bounced away so I could figure out payment for his game.

As I was trying to figure out the parental controls on the tablet so that he can't buy anything without me putting in a password, Chana told me she heard him say to himself: "This is one of the happiest moments of my life."