Learning

Drawing:

So, in addition to not being able to sing, I also cannot draw.  (Thankfully, I CAN dance!)  My best work happened in 1988: We had to turn drawings of shoes into something else, so I made my ballet shoes into water and feed troughs and my pointe shoes into pigs.  I had a lovely barnyard scene.  Yeh, so...

I am determined not to hold my children back in either of these fine arts, so we copy nature and others for now.

Oh, you've never seen a rectangle fish before?

Reading:

G, reading a book (in English now!) to the family.

Mita, cozily wrapped in a gobi, studying nature via magazine.

Writing:

I remember a student, who shall remain nameless, that had THE WORST handwriting you can imagine.  I remember his mother, apologizing to me at conferences.  My pained memories lead me to have G practice everyday.  I know that the "e" and the hook on the "j" need a bit more work, but... already this is more legible than what that 15 year old decided to offer.  Yowzers!  (That student, though, had a heart of gold: On a class trip to Costa Rica, he decided to leave the Dr. Seuss library books, in Spanish, that he had brought down to use at the orphanage that we visited, no matter the fine he would have to pay upon return.  Sweet and sour.)

Tastes:

There is a book, Bringing up bebE, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, for better and for worse.  For better: I totally agree with the pre-school chefs of France that believe that you simply need to keep reintroducing tastes for a child to eventually like a food.  

It has become painfully clear that G does not like hummus (What?!), Mita does not like asparagus (Spring's crisp offering!) and Ty does not like spicy food (MY son?).  I shall be diligent, oh France!  Thankfully, your plan has already paid off regarding tempeh. 

Ty is a fan!

(For worse: the book introduced me to "parental narration."  Before, I went around oblivious, but now it makes me crazy!)

Imagination:

The garbage truck driver, paying very close attention to the road.  Those stars?  Lights.  It was cloudy.

The children called me in from doing the dishes to show me what was happening:  "The Speaker" was up on the podium, whilst the Others were paying attention, in a perfect line.  (I seriously don't know whence this came.)