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broken bones are everywhere
My little Fisher broke his arm on Friday at gym. He is in a lot of pain, not horrendous amounts, but a lot nonetheless. We were quite the sight at the doctor’s office with my big ‘ol robot looking boot, my hip that won’t allow me to sit, and his limp arm.
He was given a priesthood blessing by some of the fathers at gym before I took him in for x-rays and after the blessing he said, “I heard the most important part.” I asked him what that was and he replied “God loves me and I am not going to be scared.”
Tears from mama.
Isn’t that we all want for our children? For them to know that God loves them and is with them always so they don’t need to be scared.
He has been so, so brave. He is a trooper. I am so proud of him and his simple trust in his Heavenly Father. He is such a kind, loving boy who desires to do good and be good. I think his arm will heal quickly and he will back to normal in no time at all, but he will be at a new normal where he will have more compassion for those who are hurting. His prayers and those of his sisters have been so tender the past couple of nights as they have prayed for God to heal his arm. Somehow his broken arm is a lot more impactful on all of them than my broken foot – I guess they kind of view mine as par for the course!
Meanwhile I am trying to not feel guilty about the state of his bones. I know I did not nourish him well in the womb as he has always been deficient in calcium. I had just been through five miscarriages and was terribly ill his entire pregnancy. Survival was the name of the game. I did not eat well and my body was seriously lacking in mineral stores from the repeated miscarriages. I just need to focus on gratitude for his presence in my life and let the guilt for not building a perfect body for him go.
The good and bad – he is especially loving his inability to unload the dishwasher and especially not loving the inability he has to play with legos.
all for bertha
What a roller coaster ride! I feel like I am going up and down and all around as I navigate the many curve balls my body throws at me. Yesterday was a great day! I taught my classes at iFamily. I felt strong and my foot hurt less than normal and my hip was in place. So I decided to go to the temple to do Bertha’s ordinances. Bertha has a special place in my heart. She is a Hannigan and I have fallen head over heals in love with the Hannigans. We are planning on doing the sealing ordinances for her husband, Ramsey Obadiah, and their eight children this weekend. All week long I have been thinking of who I could ask to go to the temple for Bertha, but I kept having the thought it should be me. Well, me sitting through an endowment session at the temple is a pretty daunting task given the state of my hip, but since I had such a great day, I decided to do it. I asked my friend Sheri to go with me and boy, howdy am I glad I did.
Halfway through the endowment session, my heart rate started going up, my brain got disoriented, and my lips and hands started tingling. Sheri and Sister Davis (a woman from my stake who handled the whole situation with such grace and calm – she deserves a pile of chocolate) could tell what was going on and went on high alert. Sheri had her arm around me to catch me if I collapsed. Through the miraculous hands of God and His angels, heavenly and earthly, I was able to finish the session and collapsed right into the arms of the man helping me move into the Celestial Room.
Yes, I have now passed out in the Celestial Room. Oh my goodness, part of me is mortified that my body fell apart in this most holy of places, but I am trying to let the mortification go and just focus on how grateful I am that I was able to attend a temple session and the peace and joy that filled my being.
After I recovered, they put me in a wheelchair and pushed me downstairs to change my clothes. Sheri came to the rescue again and got me completely undressed and dressed again while I laid on a cushioned bench. By this point I felt pretty good and I did not want to get back in the wheelchair as it was so irritating to my hip and I was afraid the bad position would make me pass out again. So I walked while the nicest woman from my stake pushed the wheelchair right behind me and Sheri had her arms around my waist.
And I almost made it.
But I didn’t.
I collapsed again right in the doorway from the inside of the temple to the lobby.
Oh my. I just wanted to crawl in a hole and disappear. When I came back to the land of the living strange people were all around me with walkie-talkies. Once again, they put me in the wheelchair and pushed me out of the temple, loaded me into Sheri’s van, and I was safely delivered home by Sheri, the aforementioned super nice woman, and really, the hands of God.
I cannot even contemplate the possibility of not being able to attend the temple anymore. Being in the temple feeds my soul. I must stop passing out so I can go often to my refuge from the world.
Things I want to remember
- Sister Davis, the super nice woman who helped me, is in my Stake Relief Society Presidency, and I don’t think knew who I was until two weeks ago when I collapsed at the Relief Society broadcast. She was one of the ladies who checked on me that night as I lay on on the floor of the church hallway and found out all about my passing out and how to handle it. Somehow she was officiating at the temple last ngiht and recognized me immediately. She appointed herself my angel and tried her best to help me by giving me special chairs that would help my hip. She immediately sensed something was wrong when my heart rate started accelerating and thoughtfully came and stood by me in case I fell down. She was amazing. I am so, so grateful she was with me and able to calmly handle the whole situation.
- Sheri is now a pro in the whole passing out arena. She calmly helped me finish the endowment session, monitoring my heart rate and skin color. She got me laid down in the Terrestrial Room before I passed out. She helped the temple staff know what was going on and didn’t cause a panic. She listened to the Lord and helped me in every way possible. I am so grateful she was willing to attend the temple with me and take care of my body when it fell apart.
- Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the day I received my endowment. I didn’t realize that till we were already in the temple and it made it all the more special to be there helping Bertha make covenants with God on the same day and in the same place I made those same covenants so long ago.
- God loves me. He knows exactly what is going on with my body and He has a purpose for this whole situation. I don’t understand it all right now, but I feel trust in the deepest parts of me that I am in His keeping.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me. Please keep ’em coming. I can go from feeling terrific to lying on the floor with my clothes all skiwampus in a matter of moments.
book bonanzas: king arthur and his knights
Last week Fisher found a gem of a book in our bookshelves and begged me to start reading it to him. I have been waiting for one of my children to fall in love with The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle. I didn’t know if he would be able to understand the language as it is quite advanced and somewhat archaic to a 21st century child, but he is loving it. I have been stopping every few paragraphs to ask him to retell me the story and he nails it every time. His comprehension far exceeds his reading skills. I wonder if there is something to that? My two children with reading struggles have had amazing comprehension.
One of my favorite parts about Howard Pyle’s books are the illustrations. His drawings are oh, so lovely. Every chapter heading has its own artistic rendering of a character or event in the chapter and other illustrations are sprinkled throughout his books.
He likes to come snuggle in bed with me before anyone else is awake and while I really, really like having my early morning hours all to myself, I wouldn’t trade these head-on-my-shoulder and feet-twisted-up-in-mine reading sessions for anything. I’m sure the day isn’t too far off when he won’t be caught dead in my bed with his head on my shoulder. Today, as we read about the Trustworthy Knight, Sir Ector, we had an interesting discussion about doing what you say you will do when you say you will do it. He has brought up Sir Ector throughout the day so I know he is thinking deeply about it. Today he went out to the garage and used the jigsaw to cut out a three foot shield from a piece of plywood. I admit I was a little nervous about him being out there with a power tool all by his lonesome, but Richard has taught him well and approved the project, so I let him go and cut to his heart’s delight. He nailed on his straps and brought it in to show us, proud as punch of his work. This afternoon, he and Annesley reenacted Sir Kay’s battle in the front yard.
This is the magic of homeschooling (although certainly a public schooling parent could have the same sorts of experiences as well) – learning doesn’t have to look like learning and it often doesn’t look like sit-at-a-desk-and-do-worksheets learning. Learning through classics, discussion, real-world application, play, and snuggling up with a book are my favorite kinds of learning.
what we ask for and what we get
Google has given me a clean bill of health, so I get to share my thoughts with all of you again. Yippee-kie-aye! I thought maybe my site was back up last week, but it wasn’t clean for realsies. But now, it is actually up and running and I can talk with all of you again. I have missed you. I have missed Liz’s lovely, encouraging, faith-filled comments. I miss the comradery we share when something I say resonates with your heart. I have missed sharing our homeschool days and hoping my words will reach out and bless your family. I have missed being strengthened and loved and commiserated with.
So, here is the deal. A lot has happened since 9/13 when my site went down. We have two birthdays, lots of cross-country meets, a symphony, several passing out episodes, lots of books discovered and enjoyed, and get this, WE DEEP-CLEANED THE SCHOOL ROOM! All of this has not been blogged about and probably won’t be blogged about. I have teensy-tinsy bits of time to write my thoughts down and I know I will not be able to catch up if I try to go back almost a month.
So, we will start fresh. Hmmmm. Do I even have any thoughts to share? The excitement of having my little home on the interwebs back is all I can think of at the moment. Hmmm, what could I share that would bless someone?
Ah, yes, this quote from this weekend’s General Conference spoke to me…maybe it will speak to you as well?
Sometimes when we plead for relief, we are given resolve and endurance.
When Elder Bednar spoke those words, my heart welled up with gratitude because I know, deep down in the marrow of my bones know, that they are true. I cannot tell you the number of times I have cried out to the God I love and begged for relief from the pain in my hip. Many, many times He has sent relief. Many times He has helped me sleep. Many, many times the pain has lessened. But just as often, the pain has stayed and the perspective has shifted and I have been blessed with the strength to endure.
I know right now that I have nothing left within me to endure. I have been consistently grumpy for almost two months. I have been exasperated with life for weeks on end. I have been rude to grocery store clerks, gas station attendants, and pharmacists. I have been so, so incredibly impossible to live with. I have almost given up the idea that I will ever be out of pain. The passing out is getting more frequent, the dislocations are spreading to more joints, my nerves are getting more irritated, and many times, it is almost overwhelming. But somehow, I keep going. Somehow I keep trying. And that somehow isn’t me. It is God. I have nothing left. When left to my own devices I am cantankerous, impatient, and out of hope. But in God’s hands, I feel cherished. Blessed. Endowed with His light. His goodness and His mercy and His eternal perspective are all that are getting me through.
Tomorrow marks the fourteenth week of my broken foot and this is the twentieth month of my hip injury. As of tomorrow, I have been passing out for ten months. God’s strength is all I have left.
are we back in business for realsy?
Two weeks without a blog is a long time for this girlie to go without processing through writing. Yes, I could have written in my commonplace book. Yes, I could have grabbed any old sheet of paper and poured my heart out on to the page, but I didn’t.
Now I can access this site with my iPad, but it still isn’t coming up on my desktop and the folks over at google say WOK is still infected with malware, so most of you probably won’t be able to read this anyway, but it feels so good for my fingers to fly across my keyboard and get some words onto the screen.
While my blog was sick with all sorts of infectious garbage, we celebrated Fisher’s birthday, got a haircut, finished Keziah’s bed, passed out several times in the most unflattering of ways, had a visit from Oaklyn, Easton, Mikelle, and Grandma, celebrated Kez’s birthday early with garlic fries at Red Robin, had a ferocious windstorm that blew many a branch of our trees, went to several XC races – some in lovely weather and some in freezing wind, read lots of books, fixed the dishwasher, fixed the dryer (Yes, my husband came to the rescue with cheapo parts and the help of youtube. How did we live without the internet? Oh, yes, we paid repairmen far more than necessary!), tried out an Elliptigo, and spent a fortune in gas.
I may find the time to go back and blog about those events, but most likely I won’t. Though the dryer story will knock your socks off…maybe I should share that one. And Fisher’s birthday does need recording for posterity, right? I’ll see if I can at least share those two stories once my desktop can access this site and upload photos.
This week we have Keziah’s birthday, a big lecture on the German invasion of Europe and a discussion on The Hiding Place and the holocaust in my Hero Project youth class, an adult discussion on Nothing To Envy, apple picking at the Honey Crisp orchard, maybe some potato gleaning, and General Conference this weekend. Somehow I need to fit in physical therapy, youth symphony rehearsals, XC practice, Pack Meeting, gymnastics, laundry, and cooking.
Hmmm. Guess, I better get up and at it. My little ones are waking and it is time to start our school day.
tender mercies = hope
I went to church yesterday – three weeks in a row for me which is super exciting. One of the worst parts of this whole injury adventure has been missing church so often. There have been many, many weeks where my body is not able to make it through the whole three hours.
Anyway, while I was sitting in Sunday School in my magic chair my sympathetic nervous system response was triggered and my limbs started going numb, heart was racing, and my brain felt so strange. I don’t really know what triggered it. My hip was hurting quite a bit more than normal. It dislocated last Tuesday and hasn’t felt very well since then, but I thought I would be fine sitting in my chair.
Well, after a while I thought I was fine and had Richard move my stuff to my next meeting, Relief Society. I continued to feel a little weird, but not too bad, so I really thought I was okay, but I wasn’t. When he came back to get me I passed out in his arms. He held me for a while until I thought I was okay again and Blythe brought the car over to the side of the building we were on. I took a few steps out to the hallway and collapsed right in the middle of a group of people – clear to the floor. I am sure my dress was skewampus and my underwear was probably showing and drool was probably running out my mouth. Oh my. I hate it when that happens. I am an extrovert extreme and I don’t mind attention being showered on me, but I REALLY don’t like this kind of attention. I hate frightening people and I hate causing a scene and I hate being so completely incapable of getting myself where I want to go. I was told three men got me out to the car and Blythe and Richard got me into bed where I stayed for the rest of the day with numb arms and legs.
I am so, so tired of this whole body falling apart thing, but even in the midst of this experience, my heart is overwhelmed with the reality of my blessings. There have been numerous blessings, far too many to count, that have come because of this injury. Here is a tender mercy from last night.
One of the men who got me to the car brought over warm Snickerdoodle cookies last night. I felt super loved and want to shower them with streamers and confetti. It is amazing to me how many thoughtful people there are in the world. That little bit of cookie magic did much to wipe away my children’s fears and bring some laughter and hope into their lives. It has to be incredibly scary for my children, even my big girls, to watch their mother collapse right in front of their eyes time and time again. They have seen me seize, pass out, be unable to walk, sob in pain, have endless doctor’s appointments, seen Richard cry for me and with me, heard public prayers for me, and so much more. As much as I try to protect them from the whole thing, they know their mother is not the bastion of strength and fortitude they used to think she was. Don’t all children think their parents are invincible? Don’t we all want to believe our parents can do anything and protect us from all foes. Well, I think a large part of that has been erased for my children and I weep for that part of childhood being whisked away. But last night, after a long day of fears, they were given a bit of magic. They know they are loved and that our family is in God’s hands. They know we are prayed for. They know their mother will keep smiling and keep reading to them and keep playing games with them, even when she is in pain. They know that their church community will reach out to them. They know their father will do everything he can for them. They haven’t lost hope, that powerful belief that changes everything, yet…and I intend to do everything I can to help them always have it.
And the cookies are part of that…thank you to the Hansen family…you guys are gems!
book bonanzas: the perfect square
We checked this book out from the library and love it! The Perfect Square is a delightful little book full clever captions, and lovely artwork by Michael Hall. It is about a square who is taken apart in a different way each day of the week. After he is cut up, ripped apart, or shattered, he makes himself into something new. So fun! This week we are going to cut up our own squares and make them into the objects in the book and probably some objects of our own creations as well.
“But on Monday, the square was cut into pieces and poked full of holes. It wasn’t perfectly square anymore.”
On the next page, these pieces are turned into a fountain with all the holes making the bubbles. So, so darling. One day the pieces make a river, another a bridge, another a mountain. It is brilliant and has got the wheels turning in my two little ones minds. I can’t wait to see what they create!
learning the golden rule
These injuries have given me an opportunity to see human nature up close and personal. I see the good and the bad, the caring and the selfish, the supportive and the flippant parts of people every day…including in myself.
I have been deeply loved and tenderly cared for in ways that would have been incomprehensible to me two years ago. Friends, family, and complete strangers have filled my heart with their honest concern, long hours of service, and patience with my injuries. I have been so, so blessed. I have people who pray for me on a daily basis. I have people who have dropped everything in their life to help me. I have people who keep cheering me on and who are doing everything they can to help me push those giving-up feelings out of my heart. They speak words of encouragement. They show compassion. They help me feel capable while filling in all the gaps of things I can’t do. They remind me of who I am on the inside and what my body used to be before this injury. They are angels and I am so, so grateful for their hands and hearts that have lifted me through this journey.
And then there are others who aren’t kind and helpful. People who stand around and watch me haul a big, awkward box of food across the parking lot at Sam’s with my small children skipping ahead and my broken foot dragging behind (yes, a man who looked fit and healthy did just that today, who knows, maybe he suffers from angina). People who are irritated when I say I can’t do something because it will hurt my body. People who roll their eyes when I talk to them. People who ask how I am and walk away long before I can respond. People who treat me like I am invisible when I am in my chair (yes, people treat me differently now…they act like they can’t see me…they run into my chair and don’t even seem to notice…they don’t make eye contact with me…I have become one of those “handicapped” people that “real” people don’t have time for). People who lecture me. People who have no patience for the long nature of these injuries…they want it fixed TODAY and don’t understand why I am not all better yet. People who get frustrated by how slowly I walk or how long it takes me to bag up my groceries at the store – to them I have lost personhood and am simply an inconvenience. People who don’t talk to me (a few months ago I attended church and not a single soul spoke to me through the whole women’s meeting even though I was lying on the floor in plain view and hadn’t been there in weeks). People who are too busy to care.
Sometimes when I encounter people like this I am able to have compassion for them because I know they just don’t understand how they are treating me. Sometimes I am able to laugh about it.
Tonight I am crying about it. I don’t know why I am crying, I just am. I tried to talk to Richard about my disappointment with the man at Sam’s Club today, but I can’t explain it, not really. I feel this sadness that people can treat one another so casually, without connection. I realize that I have treated others casually and even callously and it breaks my heart. Now I know what it feels like to be forgotten, discarded, and demeaned and I know I have treated others in that same way.
There are many good things that have come out of these injuries. I hope one of those good things is that I have learned and grown in my ability to let my heart connect with others, to be part of building others up. I don’t want to be one of those people who sees people as inconveniences or invisibles or incapables. I want to lift and love.
This quote by my favorite author reminds me of who each of us is and how I should see others…as children of God. It is a lesson I want to stop needing to relearn and instead always remember to live…and then I want to stop needing to remember because I have been transformed so thoroughly that it is who I am.
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilites, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
a mom can brag, right?
Ha-ha! I know even moms shouldn’t brag, but my heart is so full to bursting that I must share all the excitement with the world.
First piece of excitement – Annesley learned how to ride her bike a few weeks ago. As soon as we got home from our camping trip she started practicing in earnest. She would run in and get me a gazillion times a day to show me how close she was to keeping her balance and I admit, it was a tad hard not to laugh at her sorry attempts. She would get the pedal about 30% around the circle before she put her feet down to stop from crashing. Or sometimes she did crash…and oh, the tears! But within just a few days of getting home she insisted she could do it for reals and she really could! I was shocked as could be after seeing the pitiful attempts made all week long. She was a pro and was able to ride up and down our bumpy dirt road with ease. Now she loves to ride down to the mailbox to fetch the mail with Fisher.
Second bit of news – Keziah has long loved running, but hasn’t been able to be as dedicated as she would like because of this hip injury that is plaguing our lives. She really needs me to run with her and since I can’t, her running has suffered. Well, this year she decided to join a cross-country team and she has been running her little heart out for the past several weeks. She competes in one meet a week and is doing really well. I am so proud of her. Most of the youth participating have been running all summer (or for the past many years since so many of them run year round), but she has jumped right in and is giving it her best. She didn’t have time to really build up her strength or lung power, she had to run big right from the get-go and she is succeeding!
Third bit of excitement – my room is clean! It has stayed clean for over a week!
I moved a comfy chair from downstairs up into the corner of my room. I am hoping it will give me a little bit of variety of resting locations. I have been living in my bed for almost 20 months now…and I pretty much hate it. So now, I can read with the children and study myself without having to be on my bed.
Fourth big hooray – Keziah’s bed is almost finished!
I am hoping by the end of the week to have my basement back and have Annesley all moved over into Keziah’s room.
Fifth shout from the rooftops – Fisher’s bedroom is clean! We finished it last Monday late into the night and he has kept it clean for a whole week! Hallelujah!
And now, DRUMROLL PLEASE!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: (those are the drumsticks wacking the screen.)
Blythe auditioned for the Youth Symphony and was accepted! This is a huge deal. The area’s best youth musicians audition each year and some of them are accepted. She has rehearsals every week, several big performances throughout the year and then a tour to San Francisco next summer. It is so exciting and I can’t even think about it without a huge smile lighting up my face. I am SO proud of her. She fell in love with music as a baby and started begging to play the violin as a three-year-old (we made her wait till she was five). She had the same wonderful teacher for the first five years of her learning and we have struggled to find a good fit of a teacher since then. She has been teacherless for months (years?) at a time when we either couldn’t afford lessons or couldn’t find someone to teach her. We have cleaned houses and baked bread for lessons. I have taught gymnastics for years to pay for her lessons. We have done everything we could do to help her live this musical dream of hers and now the paybacks are coming. Now all her hard work is paying off. She has a gift of playing from her heart and now this experience will develop technique and repertoire that she needs to advance to the next level. Here is a big thanks to Jennifer and Jesse for helping her prepare for her audition!
So many good things are happening in the lives of my children. They are learning. They are growing. They are courageous. They are willing to try new things. They are growing up into beautiful human beings.
And it feels good to this mama. Way to go my children – shoot for the stars!
first day success
Oh my goodness! May I just shout Hallelujah!! For the past several months I have been tossing ideas around in my mind for our homeschool journey this year. I haven’t known how to schedule myself to meet the needs of my children, how to coordinate all our activities, and most importantly, how to make this year come alive with inspiration. The last two years of homeschooling have been bare minimum affairs. I have been struggling so much with my health that our days have been stuck in survival mode – doctor’s appointments, lots of resting, no extra funds, simple meals, and simple homeschooling days with math, reading, history, spelling, and religious studies…not a whole lot of fun and not a whole lot of my passion was shared with my babies.
But I am ready to thrive again. I am ready to inspire my children and reignite their passion for learning. So I have pondered. A lot. But the answers haven’t really come.
Until now.
Yesterday I spent the whole afternoon finalizing (ha-ha, is anything ever really final?) our schedule of learning, housework, and activities and came up with a pretty good routine. I presented everything at family council last night and we made a commitment to be up bright and early today to get our first day of school off on the right foot.
And we did.
Keziah did a wonderful job in her new role as breakfast maker and then we cleaned from 8:00 – 9:00 and started our learning time just a few minutes late at 9:07. Pretty good, eh? We had prayer and then I dismissed Blythe and Kez to their studies.
As soon as singing time started, I had a burst of inspiration hit me! This is what I need to shout Hallelujah about. Annesley chose the song “Holding Hands Around The World” and as we sang the first verse my mind was flooded with ideas…we could use this song as our theme for the year! We could focus on the ideas of being heroes for Christ, of joining with other people to make a difference in the world, of being willing to testify of truth at all times and in all places, of learning about people all over the world who have lived, and possibly died, for their beliefs. We can tie in the people we are learning about in World War II for my scholar class at iFamily and the people during the Revolution that Keziah is studying in Key of Liberty. We can bring out my long neglected Hero Tales about people all over the world who have heroically lived for the cause of Christianity. We could focus on the idea of building bridges with others through kindness, respect, listening, and serving so they will want to hold hands with us. I could help my children see they are not alone. There are people, millions of people of many different cultures and religious beliefs who are doing good things in this world and we can be part of that group. We can develop our talents to make a difference in this world. We can live and love and serve. We can be courageous heroes holding hands with others across the earth in living for truth. So many ideas!
As soon as our song was over I jumped up and my New Testament art kit and shared the story of The Ten Lepers. We talked about how Christ has the power to heal. We talked about character and what it means to stand for something. We talked about gratitude and how important it is to thank those who help us and especially to thank God for his blessings on us individually and as a family. Then I grabbed Hero Tales volume 1 and read the first story to them. It happened to be about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of my favorite men, from World War II. I told them about Hitler and Nazism and the goal of taking over the world. Then I shared the story of Dietrich and how he stood up to Hitler and was imprisoned and eventually hung for teaching that following Hitler was evil and idolatrous. What a wonderful discussion! Fisher and Annesley didn’t know about Hitler and I made it super simple and not horribly frightening to them and they were enthralled with Dietrich’s story of courage.
Then I shared our poem for the week…already picked out AND it went perfectly with this new flood of ideas.
Then I read My Side of The Mountain to them. Fisher and I had started it months ago and then put it down for awhile. The other day he saw it and asked for me to finish it with him, so we restarted it again today while Annesley played on the floor with her Balancing Moon. Then I worked with Kez on her math while Fisher and Annes continued with the moon game.
When I was done working with Keziah, I asked Fisher to read to me. Sometimes he hates reading to me and it looked like this would be one of those days. He was begging to only read four pages, but he fell in love with his newest early reading book and read all the way to page 49! Then we did our Life of Fred chapter and several pages in his Miquon book. By this point he insisted he was done with math for the day and was ready to play a game with me. What did he pick? A math game! Sequence Numbers is one of his favorite games, so we got to drill math facts for another twenty minutes without him even batting an eye. He cracks me up. If learning looks even remotely like a game, he is all over it. If it looks like study, he is super resistant. It reminds me of Andrew Pudewa’s talk Teaching Boys and Other Children Who Would Rather Build Forts All Day. Then Annesley wanted to pick a game and she chose a math game as well…Add to Ten Memory Match. After the games were done we read some books from the library bin. Then they went outside and husked corn for lunch.
Great first day!
After lunch I was able to study for a solid 90 minutes before I had to run children to their afternoon activities. Now I need to run and make dinner…and get my wheels spinning for this new theme idea. I am SO excited about it!
I'm Tracy, a mama with big dreams, crazy ideas, loads of laughter, an insatiable desire to learn, and enormous piles of laundry.
