He will roar

I don’t believe in Astrology, the whole concept of someone who deludes themselves that they are ‘psychic’ looking at some stars and calculating that swathes of people who were born between certain times of the year are going to experience the same things seems insane.

This is my Leo the lion. He’s seven years old, likes the words ‘fart’ and ‘poo’. He recently thought it was hilarious to turn the lights out in Morrison’s toilets when some poor bloke was in there and leg it. His star sign is not Leo. I don’t know what his star sign is but some daft person somewhere will be calculating his temperament based upon it. He is a bit of a daydreamer, likes brussell sprouts and refuses to read books which aren’t factual. He likes Dr Who obsessively. He writes most of his letters backwards and some numbers. He’s a little bit of a mystery to me really as I love reading and writing and he’d much rather be doing something else. Not that he’s stupid, his teacher says he’s very bright, but she can’t show it unless he displays his findings in textual form. It makes me wonder just how much emphasis on intelligence is based on literacy results, and whether it is the right way to gauge whether someone is intelligent. He sees things in a way I don’t and sometimes finds my blind spots at only seven years old. He’s unwaveringly curious and has to investigate everything constantly, with a keen interest in science. I find him fascinating but I worry about how he’s going to get on without any interest in writing even basics. My eldest son Quinn developed literacy in such a textbook manner I was able to use his writing in one of my degree modules. But Leo isn't textbook, he's a rebel with toxic farts. I suppose I’ll have to just keep at it and try not to put him off. I’ll keep buying the joke books and fact books he will look at. I’ll keep helping him write his number 5’s the right way round. He’s my little lion.