Sunday, September 9, 2012

Other Happenings in Our World

On Labor Day we drove up to Grand Mound and met my Aunt and Uncle, who were making their way home from Oregon. This Aunt and Uncle were always a huge part of my life growing up. We did so much with them, camping, fishing, and just simply being with them. They will always and forever be very special to not only me but to all my siblings. I reflect back to how much fun we use to have out and about, confusing people all the time. You see my Aunt is my Mom’s sister and my Uncle is my Dad’s brother. Yes, brothers married sisters. I remember going into stores with my mom and dad, then turning back around to go back in with my Aunt and Uncle. Oh the comments we would get, “You were just in here, your back again?” One time while out on a fishing trip I went in to the store with my mom and dad as they got their fishing license. I turned back around and went in with my aunt and uncle who were doing the same thing. The man working the counter thought they were crazy, “You only need one license a piece?” Oh the laughs we had. I will never forget all the evenings we sat up late playing card games, laughing, and singing. It was very special to share them with Selena.

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Since Selena has been brought home and the stress was removed about school, when I told her after leaving the Principal’s office that she would be home for a few days, she has become a sponge for wanting to learn again. That very day she begged me to teach her about money. I pulled her brand new play money set out that we were saving for Christmas and told Selena to go get my measuring cups. We refreshed our memory on how to read fractions and how to tell how many 1/2 or 1/4 cups it would take to make a full cup. We then took a dollar bill and began to relate the different coins and how many it would take to make a dollar. Selena easily reached for the correct measuring cup when I expressed we had a half dollar or a quarter. I didn’t realize I need to purchase extra nickels, dimes, and pennies for this set so that she can count them out to a dollar.

For two days straight Selena pulled out the Scrabble game and asked me to play scrabble with her. I loved how she tried so hard to spell her own words, such as she informed me she had the letters for eel, she didn’t think it looked right with two e’s so she spelled it yel. I chuckled to myself as we continued to go through the game and she studied her letters so carefully to see if she could make words. She cracked me up though when she couldn’t find a word in her tiles, she would just reach in the pile and add more tiles to her hand until she could find a word. Oh well, what are rules when they are trying so hard, yes I know following rules is a huge lesson, but she was laughing, studying and having inhibited learning going on.

For the first time in two weeks Selena grabbed her doodle pad out. She drew many pictures, then began to ask me to write sentences for her to read. After each sentence I wrote she asked for harder words. We finally ended up with “Education comes easy when you open your mind,” and “Scientific methods are easy when we understand math.” She stumbled a bit with Education and Scientific, but by her second try she decoded them perfectly.

It has been fun to watch her come back to naturally wanting to learn. We have had so much fun just playing, laughing, and being once again very relaxed learners of our world.

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3 comments:

  1. It looks like you had a great time! It is nice that she wants to learn so much!

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  2. It sounds like coming home has been nothing but a blessing. I'm so glad to hear she's happy again.

    And what an amazing story for your aunt and uncle. I always love story books that have 2 brothers and 2 sisters marrying, they always were so much fun to see the double love stories unfolding.

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  3. I am glad that Selena has fun at home and that you managed to meet your aunt and uncle!

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