This week at the academy I have learned quite a few things. For those of you reading this who have not experienced home-education rest assured that moms who teach learn just as much if not more than the little ones we should be teaching.
I learned that little man has grown up quite a bit, both physically and in maturity. He has worked independent of me this week. I have been able to give him a list of work to accomplish and he has delightedly and quickly accomplished his work. He needed very little help from me and on one day he even wrote his own to-do list. A couple of years ago I truly wondered if independent work would ever come. I heard lot’s of homeschooling moms talking about how they did laundry or prepared four course meals (well maybe I’m exagerating a bit there), learned latin and read novels all while their little ones were independently accomplishing their school work. **sarcasm** My little guy seemed to need me to hold his hand for so long that I wondered if I was doing something wrong. But, I now see that I can work in the house at “keeping” while little man works at “schooling.” Ah, is that a little peace I’m feeling?
I learned the Grover Cleveland served 2 terms as president non-consecutively as the 22nd and 24th President.
I learned that writing is becoming more and more fun for him. A couple of weeks ago I added poetry to our regular line-up. He has been reading and studying some of the greats. This week it we Robert Lois Stevenson’s “The Swing.” So I got to thinking, ‘what if he wrote a poem?’ Yesterday I gave him his writing assignment… Write your very own brand new poem.
He sat for a couple minutes the said, “I don’t know what to write about.”
“Well you can write about anything.” Then I listed some possibilities. Trees, the sky, the earth, outerspace, your stuffed animal, family, etc.
“Can I draw a picture to go along with it?” He asked.
“Absolutely”
So he began to draw a picture, he didn’t tell me what it was, or what the poem was going to be about. I made sure he finished the picture and actually began to write something on the paper, then I said, “You go ahead and finish that, I have something to do in the kitchen. Bring it to me when your through.” About fifteen minutees later, he excitedly came to me and showed me his poem. It is a beautiful rendition of something that is important to him, and he was thrilled that he had written his very own poem, all by himself. Later he even wanted me to tell mammaw and pappaw on the phone, and had me read it to them. Then, he asked them what they thought. This was especially a great move, because pappaw also has a poetical heart. (As I’m writing this, he saw the poem sitting beside me and wanted to show dad. He read it to him and then said, ‘I’m an expert at these things.’) I’m going to add it to the “Thoughts in Rhyme” Page.
I learned that the chart we all learned in school about the human tongue having it’s tastebuds divided into sections is wrong! You know that chart, the tip of the tongue tastes sweet, the front side tastes salty, the back side tastes sour and the back of the tongue tastes bitter leaving the center for savory. Remember it? We did an experiment where we used 5 q-tips dipped into something from each of those flavors and then tried it on different parts of the tongue. He and I both discovered that it doesn’t matter where the flavor lands, you can taste it anywhere! Don’t believe me? Try it for your self.
I learned that the scent memory is located in the temporal lobe of the brain. Then I learned that J doesn’t like the aroma of nutmeg. We tested his scent memory using various spices. He was in fact able to remember which scents were which even blindfolded after only a brief introduction.
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| us, before… |
And last but not least… I learned that my beloved has a hidden talent that I was quite unaware of. He can write! I know anybody can write, I just didn’t know how beautifully he could write out his emotions. This week we celebrate our love, we don’t celebrate on Valentines, it means nothing to us. But we do celebrate our love every year when we remember the anniversary of our first date, which does mean something to us. It is when this journey of love began 21 years ago. He wrote me a note this week. It was a truly beautiful and simple note with deep feeling and emotion. It was the perfect gift of love.