I was checking my youngest daughter's work a couple days ago. I had put off checking work because I was busy the last couple of weeks. What I discovered was some missed assignments. Random, sporadic assignments that she skipped because school has been taking her so long. An English lesson, a math workbook page, a McGuffey lesson... blank pages where there should have been completed work.
All of my children try it at least once. They all try to skip a little here and there, to see if Mom will let it slide. As my youngest daughter becomes more independent, I am not surprised that she has tried to push boundaries. So, she has the privilege of redoing all the missed assignments. Every.. single... one... even if she is a few units ahead, even is she knows the material well. It isn't about what she has learned as much as teaching that telling me she has finished all her school work while skipping assignments is a lie.
This entire school year has not been great. I have felt as if every day is a battle. My own college classes took up too much time. I was overwhelmed by life and schooling, and had to reduce my schedule. This semester has been a bit smoother, but I am still trying to balance it all. Last night, I realized that I just want to redeem this school year. I just want to make this year one that is full of good memories, not bad ones.
So far there has been too much of me telling my youngest repeatedly, "Come on, focus. Come on, get going on school. Come on, get stuff done." There hasn't been a lot of joy.
Last night I was reading to my youngest daughter. Reading at bedtime has become a routine, but sometimes we don't get to reading aloud during the day. It used to be a vital part of our school day, but somewhere along the way I let it slip away. My youngest is growing more and more independent in her work, and it is easy to simply hand her the books to read and think, "She can do this on her own."
Joy had disappeared and school had become... school. It had become a checklist of things to get done instead of an adventure to share. I have always included a lot of reading, and have tried to focus on reading aloud over the last few years, but it is always the first thing I cut when life gets busy or difficult.
So, this morning, I sat down with my ten year old and began to read. An hour later, we had finished a book we had been reading sporadically for a few months. The reality is that, as I read, the stress of meeting all the checklist demands disappeared. We simply got to sit together, under a blanket, and read about little Anna in Prairie Anna as she made the decision about where she wished to live.
The sad thing is that I know the value of books and story in a child's life. I am studying library science in college. I am a huge proponent of reading to children. I blog about it and read about it and talk about it. But life still happens, and there are times when I stop making it the priority because I get so busy. One story can teach more than a thousand lessons. What I know in my head often difficult to do in real life when the world starts spinning fast and other things begin to take precedence.
This morning I put aside the math and history for a bit, and just picked up a story. I read for a few minutes, even as workers came in and out of our home. These same workers had distracted my youngest every day for three weeks. While I was reading, she didn't even really notice they were there. While I was reading, we were engrossed in the story, not worried about the lists of things that await us. As I read, we were in a different time and a different place.
Now, we are ready for the day. Now, we began the school day with story. As I delve into my child's literature class for college, learning about fairy tales and folk tales, I know that I started our school day with reading to my daughter and enjoying the beautiful moments together.
If I can redeem one day with story, perhaps I can redeem a challenging school year the same way, one day at a time.
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