How Do Kids Like This Go to School?

Ate breakfast. Did a math page. Then read them the fable "Fox's Snack".

Jake wanted to act it out. Josie didn't. I sent Jake upstairs to get a bag for a prop. Then Josie decided she wanted to play. We used an afghan for the bag.

First Jake was the fox, I was the lady of the house, and Josie was all the other characters. The dog acted the part of the dog in the story. You should have seen her all wrapped up in the afghan, struggling to get out and "eat" the "fox". Next we played it so that Jake got to be all of the other characters in the story.

After that, Josie wanted to write Part Two of the story. So she paced all around the room while I wrote what she dictated. She added a cat to the story. Four pages later, I asked if she wanted to draw a picture for part 2. She said she didn't. So I did. At that point she thought drawing a picture was a grand idea, and drew two, embellishing the story a bit while she doodled. She went upstairs to take a shower, and Jake asked if he could write Part Three. He dictated three pages to me and then he illustrated his story.

Whew. This was about 3 hours of narrating, writing, reading, drawing, acting, reciting, and dictation, with a little math thrown in.

A school teacher would have to get past the fact that my daughter says "no" to something. Just begin doing it anyway, and she'll join in. A teacher would have to accept that my kids dislike writing at this time. No way I would ever expect her to sit down and take dictation. A teacher would have to let my kid put another kid in a bag and attack them in order to act out a story! Heaven forbid! Running in the classroom? No way. Would I want them to do any of these things in a real classroom situation? Never.

So, did they far exceed their former public school's and my own expectations of them today? Yep. Am I proud of them and hopeful? Yes indeedy.