A Favorite Quote

"Those who seek to be offended are easily satisfied."
I do not know who this is attributed to or where I read it. I do know its impact on me is profound. I often alter this to remind myself of greater aims and to recalibrate my thinking, because of this my children often hear me say, "Those who seek to be grateful are easily satisfied." Or, "Those who seek to be happy are easily satisfied." The possibilities are endless.

It's Not For Learning...

Mya Bella sits in church each week occupying herself with drawing and writing as she listens to the speakers. Two Sundays ago she was drawing pictures of levers, pulleys, fulcrums and other simple machines. She was inspired by a computer game my husband purchased which we call Crayon Physics, because her renderings looked very similar the game's graphics. She is constantly asking to play physics on the computer and when she cannot she creates other opportunities.

Today she was writing lists of words corresponding with letters of the alphabet. She chose A, B and C. She was sounding out words, switching out vowels and leaning over for an assist on more complex words that were very important to her. She wanted to see how many words she could write on her list. At one point she leans over and whispers in my ear, "It's not for learning Mom. I'm just having fun."

Reading Aloud: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

I decided to switch it up a bit. Instead of starting a new book I went for a poem relating to the book we just read. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a great rhyming read. It makes Paul Revere an American Folk-hero. Unfortunately, the rhyme-ability of Revere overshadow his compatriots who also participated in the ride: William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott. It also ignores the fact Paul Revere never made it Concord, Massachusetts as planned. Three cheers for poetic license; however, no matter the inaccuracy, no matter the type of literature, it is still a valuable teaching tool and gives an avid learner the opportunity to question validity and learn something new.

Reading Aloud: Johnny Tremain

For a short, but insane, period of my life I attempted to educated my children at home, start a charter school and complete 17 credit hours a semester at Southern Utah University. I cannot say I handled myself with the grace and intellect I desired; however, what can one expect when they are juggling that much in their life. While attending SUU I took an English class by professor Charles Cutherbertson. The end of the semester involved a paper about Beloved by Toni Morrison. I wasn't too fond of the book but used the symbolism of the trees the author verbally illustrated throughout the novel and tied it to the themes of freedom and liberty.

Mr. Cuthbertson (an English professor with more toys than books on his shelves) and I discussed my choice and my examples at one point. I chose to illustrate and link the symbolic nature of trees in Beloved to the Sons of Liberty and the Liberty Tree. I share this with you because I was befuddled and dumbfounded to discover my professor had heard of neither of these. Neither. Neither! I could not believe what I heard and being emotionally transparent I know my voice oozed of disappointment. He knew the longing for freedom and individual power expressed by Malcolm X. (A book on his top ten published by the SUU library.) But, knew nothing of the people who incited the call to revolution and the symbolic nature of trees attached to it. It demonstrated to me something I take for granted.

I was not going to let me children miss out on the love and passion I learned as a child for this great country and the people who paid the high price to make it so. It started a mission. I began to work on my membership to the Daughters of the American Revolution. And soon plan to add their membership to the Children of the American Revolution. I also wanted them to hear stories of lives from that time period.

I remembered watching the movie, Johnny Tremain, by Disney as a child. I loved it then. So I decided to share the book with my children. (Maybe I will also hunt down the movie.) It was an amazing and touching read. One I would definitely recommend to anyone. It was written by Esther Forbes. It is Newberry Award Winner.

Johnny Tremain is a magical historical fiction. It deals with an array of emotions from pride, humiliation, perseverance, personal triumph and forgiveness. It intertwines these lessons with the events of Boston and the surrounding areas just prior to the American Revolution. It includes the Boston Tea Party and the marches on various forts from the Bostonian perspective. It ends on a solemn and sacred note as the author details the lives lost on the morning of 19 April 1775 in the green at Lexington. (I believe.) It is apparent the author revered and reverenced these events. It is a wonderful depiction of the internal emotional struggles and the external physical struggles of these events. I am grateful for the opportunity to read this to my children.

In the Middle of Johnny Tremain

My children and I are currently reading Johnny Tremain. We are loving the book. (Of coarse, what book don't we love.) Johnny is on the eve of the Boston Tea Party, 16 December 1773. Although, I love the colorful interactions between the protagonist and supporting characters as they illustrate, with words, the struggle of the Whigs and Tories at the commencement of the American Revolution. It is great to share a historical fiction with my children and know the excitement of the writing teaches the concepts and events of the America's struggle for freedom far better than I can, even though my heart swells with gratitude as I think of the patriots, both male and female. These stories invigorate the mind, inspire questions and stimulate the desire for more information. It is, probably, the most wonderful turn of events in reading with and to children, whatever their ages.

In the book Johnny Tremain, Johnny, the protagonist, is confronted early with his Achilles Heal. Pride. The designs for his life are uprooted and rearranged for something else. Possibly something greater! But, he has to face down the seeds of bitterness his pride plants in his heart. Luckily, the author inserts a wonderful supporting character and mentor in Rab. A character that teaches Johnny but shares brilliant lessons for the reader and teacher without sounding preachy or talking down to Johnny or the reader. He confronts Johnny's poor demeanor in a very kind, simple and straightforward way. It gave pause for my children and I to discuss the matter.

Johnny struggled with going off "half-cocked." Not only were we able to discuss the term and what it meant but discuss how there are times when we all face the same struggle. My eldest son struggles mercilessly with his temper. It has come to be a habit to always jump to an extreme with his siblings. He usually chooses frustration, anger or hurt. I cannot even begin to tell you how much he has improved but it is still quite the struggle for him. The book provide a great illustration of how a change in behavior creates positive consequences and opens doors for Johnny. Johnny expressed his gratitude too.

My children even commented that if there Mother was alive during this time period she would definitely be a Whig. Probably an inflammatory one too. I do not talk much politics: it gets me in trouble. I avoid it most times because it depresses me, but, like the characters that color the pages of this book, I love freedom. I would do anything for it. My children know that. It is hard to say whether I would be more like Abigail Adams or Molly Pitcher. I will have to find books about those individuals and see what my children think.

Ooooops!

Last week, Kaylee popped into the car after Seminary with a question. Would I be willing to teach Seminary on Tuesday while the teacher was in a meeting? When we signed her up for the class the teacher jokingly wrangled my husband and I into volunteering to teach; however, he did not expect us to say yes. I told her to let her teacher know I was willing.

I would love to share all these wonderful insights from the experience but, quite frankly, I failed miserably. Maybe because I allowed time to rush by me and read over the lesson at the last minute. Maybe because I did not get enough sleep. I rarely do. Maybe because the teacher's meeting got canceled, he sat in the class and I allowed myself to get nervous. Who knows? I do know that education is my dream, teaching is my love. Although I puttered along during this attempt and I am working with my already pummeled heart to keep my head up, I am going to keep working at it. And maybe I will find that if [I advance somewhat] confidently in the direction of [my] dreams, and [endeavor] to live the life which [I] ... imagined, [I] will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Hopefully, sooner than later.

365 Day Challenge So Far

Grrrr....there isn't much else to say, really. Like New Year's Resolutions gone awry, my personal challenge to read to my children for 365 days is lacking consistency. Consistency is a constant struggle for me! I am finding weekend outings, birthdays and holidays to be some of my obstacles. I am problem solving these situations to overcome them. Weekend outings are a relatively easy fix: take the book on the trip and read while we are traveling. (My husband's idea.) Birthdays are a little more difficult I can think of a thousand things to do to preoccupy myself on these days but I am going to hunker down and do it or get over not having a perfect track record, but why would I want to lower my expectations. Holidays are another stumbling block. My husband is home then and I would much rather spend time with him and stay in bed. My normal expectation is to read to the children in the morning. I struggle to complete an activity if I miss its schedule time. I am going to have to work on adjusting my expectations on holidays. And again I am probably going to have to hunker down and just get it down, whenever or give up sleep to get it done. I guess I am looking at a little more effort, discipline, dedication and possibly an adjustment in my expectations.