Remember the nightmare news I received last month that Two and Three would soon be tested on a variety of the human body’s bones, muscles and ligaments? (If not, you may reference the debacle here.)

Turns out, we didn’t study properly. Or something.

Because they failed.

Okay, that was dramatic. Only Two failed. Three got a D+.

Their teacher informed them that they could retake the test after the holiday break. To which Henry responded, “Great, well I am not going to be studying again. I already did that once and we can see how that turned out.” I waited an hour (and made brownies) before announcing that it was time to (once again) begin studying  where the tibia, fibula and clavicle are located.

Last night, on the eve of the retest, I suggested to my solution-starved husband that help the boys remember the harder bones (harder to remember, not harder on the Mohs scale) by coming up with some sort of word association—or something.

This is what he came up with:

“Okay. Femur sounds like lemur. Lemur starts with “le” just like “leg.” The femur is in the leg.”

Forget a pin; you could hear dust drop.

15 minutes later I heard David ask in staccato fashion, “The ilium. Henry. is WHERE?”

To which Henry replied, in true Eeyore fashion, “I don’t know. The body?”

To which David replied, “PAY ATTENTION!”

To which 2 1/2-year-old Nina replied, “YEAH! PAY ATTENTION!”

After school today, I inquired as to how the retest went.

“Oh, it went great!” responded Jack. “I got a D+!”

“Is a D+ is great?” I asked.

“Well,” he said contemplatively, “last time I got an F!”

I’m so pleased that I’m raising children who know just when to identify the silver lining.

*Photo compliments of Nikolya Magukov