The True Treasures of Christmas

This fall has been a very trying time for our family in what could be appropriately called a season of death.  My Dad died in an accident in his home at the end of August and my father-in-law passed away in mid October just weeks shy of his 100^th birthday.  Christmas has been a little strange this year with both Dads being gone.  It's not that they are missed because it's “Christmas;” neither one spent Christmases with our family.  It’s more that Christmas seems to be a benchmark time of the year.  Just about everybody worldwide celebrates/recognizes the day.  I think it's a day of reflection more than most other holidays.  Last Christmas Dad was alive and well and working at a contract engineering job.  My father-in-law was in the hospital after hip surgery and baffling the doctors who couldn't believe a 99 year old was as resilient as he was.  This Christmas they are both gone, and we are down to just our immediate family.  

Just as the Christmas season was starting this year, we were returning from an almost month-long trip to clean up my parent’s things.  I had spent days and days digging through their belongings trying to decide what were the true treasures that I wanted to keep; knowing that so much would have to be sold and all I’d be left with were the memories.  Limited time and space gave me encouragement to decide what things were most important.

We returned home just in time to meet the Christmas season head on and in full swing.  So, like most of the fall, Christmas seemed a little rushed this year.  Late Christmas Eve afternoon I rolled out a new recipe for gingerbread cookies, just in time to have cookies for Santa.  The three oldest children helped cut the cookies into gingerbread men, stars, snowflakes, and Christmas trees. Christmas night I read a story to my 4-year old daughter while she was curled up in my lap, finishing her Christmas cookie.  I asked her what she liked best about the treat. She thought a minute and then quietly sighed and said, "It smells like Mommy."  I had to think about that one, then I realized it was the most wonderful thing she could have said.  For her it was a combination of the making of the cookies with Mommy and her liking the taste.  I doubt in years to come that she’ll remember what she did or didn’t get for Christmas this year, but I hope when she smells gingerbread cookies baking, she'll have something more important, a treasured memory of this Christmas with her family.  I know I will. 

After I tucked my oldest daughter into bed, my 1 year old was fussy (cutting a tooth), so I wrapped her in her blanket and settled in the recliner in front of the Christmas tree.  We rocked quietly for a long time, until I finally started to see her eyes close when she just couldn't keep them open to look at the tree any longer.  She heaved a sigh and settled her head against my chest as she fell asleep.  Of all the gifts that were given and received this year, that precious time snuggling the baby was my true treasure of Christmas.  

Summer Reading Programs

 Ah, Summer! The sun, the fun, the summer reading programs. So many from which to choose. The local public library is always a good one. Then there is our church, some on-line homeschooling resources, and a few local restaurants…pizza prizes anyone? This is our fourth year participating with our library, and our first year with three readers. My oldest two have discovered literally hundreds of new books over the years thanks to our public library reading program. This year their younger sister has joined in the fun.

  

Folks around town have been amazed at how many books my children can read in a few months. It’s a feat at which I marvel, but I’m not surprised. My children LOVE books! They have been read to since before they were born. In their unquenchable thirst to learn, I taught them to read at an early age. My youngest reader so far started reading books shortly after her third birthday. She followed the same path as her brothers. First simple sight words, then phonics overlapped with reading videos, and a generous dose of snuggle time curled up in Mommy or Daddy’s lap with her favorite story books. It’s all about words, words, words, and more words. It also helps that we don’t have television reception at our house. We have discovered that we didn’t have time to watch t.v. when we were busy learning about and enjoying life. We have televisions, but they are used to watch educational and other parent-approved material. Without hours a day in front of a t.v. with mindless programming, my children willing read books and use their imaginations.

They have discovered the magic and power of books. Board books at first with best loved authors like Margaret Wise Brown (The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon), Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?), and Sandra Boynton (Blue Hat, Green Hat and Opposites). Then on to Dick and Jane, the Berenstain Bears, Dr. Seuss, and the wonderful vocabulary of Fancy Nancy. There really is magic when Ms. Frizzle class boards the Magic School Bus for her wacky science field trips. My 3 year old can’t see a school bus on the street without yelling out “Magic School Bus!” My children have sailed around the world with Ferdinand Magellan; visited Egypt, ancient Greece, Italy, China, Spain, and other foreign lands; as well as going back in time to the Middle Ages and when Jesus walked the earth. Their grasp of history has improved through the adventures in the Magic Tree House series, and they have become acquainted with the greatest of history’s men and women, including this country’s founding fathers, through numerous biographies, especially in the Step-Up series. They have lived on the Mayflower, in colonial times, through the American Revolution and the Civil War, as well as attending the signing of the Constitution through the “If You Lived…” series. They have expanded their math skills and science knowledge with the Charlesbridge math adventures and the Cat-In-The-Hat Learning Library. They have explored the depths of a tide pool with a hermit crab named Pagoo. Many meaningful conversations have been initiated thanks to Max Lucado’s religious parable books for children. Summer reading programs have taken my children on rafts down the mighty Mississippi River with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, riding with the wind in their hair on the Black Stallion, and into a land that can only be found through a mysterious wardrobe in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. And of course they have discovered the friendship and mutual love of ponies in the Pony Pal series at our local library.

During the summer, the morning hours that would normally be devoted to homeschooling become reading time. As a homeschooling Mom I love that my children can learn and discover on their own through books. Last summer, my boys made it a mission to read every history and science book in the library within their reading levels. This year, my oldest has a new-found interest in animals and veterinary medicine, so James Herriot’s books have become frequent visitors in our house, as well as all the animal care books he can find.

In addition to the educational and entertainment value of books, the reading program has brought organization, responsibility, and respect into our summer. With three readers, we have three sets of books and three reading lists to maintain. We had to establish a routine of where library books are to be kept when not being read and where they are to be deposited when completed so that they can be logged on each child’s reading list. I keep a tracking system to ensure that each book is returned to the library safely and on time. No small feat for this Mom who has been up late at night updating the reading lists. The children are responsible for keeping up with their books, and I help with the tracking and communication with the librarian. Because most of the books are borrowed from the library or other sources, the children are also learning about respect for the property of others, as well as sharing. Library books are treated better than our own. They are not left on the floor to be stepped on or to be picked up and chewed on by the baby or left on chairs to be sat on. They have bookmarks instead of dog-eared pages or being left open face-down to damage the bindings. And they are returned as quickly as possible so that other readers can enjoy them too. It’s really just controlled chaos, but all in good fun.

 

Another benefit of summer reading programs is discovering treasures buried deep on the library shelves. Those treasures are the books that speak volumes through fabulous writing and captivating illustrations. Sometimes they are Caldecott or Newbury award winners, but many are not. They are the books that we love so much that we want them for our family library. They have varied from the amazing science books of Thomas Locker to our newest acquisition, Helen Haidle’s What Would Jesus Do?, the children’s version of the Christian classic, In His Steps.



In a few short years, I expect to add another child to the summer reading program. The baby likes to sit with her own board books and babble while I’m reading to her older siblings. It’s an exciting development for us. She is only copying what she sees, but what she sees is laying a foundation for her future. It’s a future that I expect will reflect the theme of this year’s summer reading program: Dream Big…Read!

Deciding to Homeschool

When Alan and I were engaged, we had all the planning conversations like how many children we wanted, how and where we wanted to raise them, how to manage the finances. But as with every major life decision, some things were never a consideration. Never did we even have the thought that we’d homeschool. I dreamed of raising my children in a suburban neighborhood filled with other children that would grow up with ours, walk to school together, celebrate birthdays and the last day of school, and all those wonderful things that I had while growing up in a great public school system. I envisioned my children would be in school during the day and I could do homemaker stuff in peace and quiet and efficiency. Then I’d greet my young scholars in the afternoon with a hug and a snack as they returned home from school ready to do their homework and play outside before dinner.

Fast forward nine years when our first child, Zachary, is ready for preschool. The local preschool in the small town to which we’d just moved wouldn’t accept him because he wasn’t 3 on September 1st. Zachary has a November birthday. We explained to the preschool teacher that he already knew a lot of the basics, so academically he was ready. But we were patiently but firmly informed that rules were to be followed, and his birthday excluded him that year. So we tried the local Christian private school. The day we toured the school, the 4 year old preschool class was learning “L” is for “lamb.” My husband looked at me and said, “Zac knew that when he was 2.” So we decided to skip preschool. Zachary had a thirst for learning, and we certainly were not going to wait until the school system said he was old enough. Fast forward another three years, and Zachary is finally old enough for Kindergarten. But during the years in between, he had learned how to count by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s all the way to 100, how to add and subtract, how to tell time to the quarter hour, and how to read, and he was reading at a second grade level. But he was a typical 5/6 year old boy in his maturity with a short attention span and likely to get into trouble if he wasn’t being challenged. His Dad and I realized we were at a crossroad. Do we put him in public school knowing he’d be bored in Kindergarten and probably a trouble maker, or do we continue with his education at home? The public school didn’t have the resources to accommodate an academically advanced 5 year old.

 We had lots of concerns. We had two younger children that needed mommy’s attention. How much time could I devote to homeschooling and taking care of the others, plus the general up keep of the house and family? Could Zachary learn from us at home? How would we handle subjects that we might not have done so well in when we were in school? Would he miss out on socializing with other children every day, all day long? Did we need to follow a particular curriculum? Could we afford the financial investment of buying materials?

The first thing we did was ask a lot of questions of other homeschoolers in our area. What did and didn’t work for them and why? What programs had they used for math, language arts, history, science, etc. The “why” became very important as we selected what we thought would work for us. I took every suggestion and searched online for reviews from other homeschooling parents. I asked questions of people who were selling their homeschool materials. Why are you selling? Did the program work for you or not? Slowly but surely we made one decision after another for each subject area that we wanted to teach that first year. We made the financial investment a priority. Once the everyday needs of the family were met, homeschooling materials were at the top of the budget list. I researched and negotiated material and shipping fees and traded or swapped for everything else. Many suppliers offered payment plans if we were to buy a year’s worth of material from them. My husband and I decided that buying homeschool materials wouldn’t be any different than our usual purchasing habits of paying for things in full.

As the day grew near to turn in our public school exemption form and officially become a homeschooling family, I grew ever more nervous. This was a big commitment. Could I really teach this child? I had a Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in English and Psychology. My husband has a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, so he has a strong emphasis in math and science. Between the two of us, we had the basics covered. But we are not certified teachers, and my husband’s duty is to provide for the family while I stay home to raise our children. That means that the bulk of the teaching would fall to me. One day I had a moment of clarity: I had been teaching Zachary all along. The reason we were in this predicament wasn’t because of his November birthday, it was because he had been learning since he was a baby, and I had been the one doing most of the teaching. I could do this! We knew he was ahead of his peers academically, so if we had to take it slowly at first, we could. We became acquainted with our state’s homeschool laws, turned in our exemption form, and launched out on a new adventure.

We started out slowly. Thirty-minutes at a time was all the attention span Zachary could muster. We’d work a while, and take a break. Then we’d work some more. Games were a new and fin incentive for him. The biggest adjustment for Zachary was understanding that home wasn’t just for playtime anymore. Up until that point, learning had been mingled with playing. Now it was a little more formal, and I felt the responsibility to make it as routine as possible. Most days we finished all our school work by lunch time. As the months went by, his attention span lengthened. We could get more work done in a shorter amount of time. I made sure to include a reading session at the end of his morning workbook sessions. Reading time was our favorite. Zachary would cuddle in my lap, and we would settle in with a history or science book. It was soon obvious to me that we could use “regular” books for teaching.

While we were establishing our homeschooling schedule, I had to figure out how to weave in the needs of Zachary’s then 3 year old brother, Nathan, and 1 year old baby sister. The baby was the easiest. She took several naps a day, and I could usually work around her schedule, but Nathan was a challenge. He was a busy little boy and as eager to learn as his brother. We don’t have television reception at our house; we have never put in cable, and we would have to have a huge antennae to have any kind of reception. So using the television as an electronic babysitter was out of the question, but could I use it as a teaching tool for a preschooler?

Then I had another moment of clarity. We had already been doing just that. We had an extensive DVD and VHS library of preschool and early learning material. I had watched all of it with baby Zachary sitting in my lap. I couldn’t watch it with Nathan, but he could learn from the safety of his highchair while I worked with Zachary. So the juggling act began. I would work with Zachary until whatever Nathan was watching ended, and then I’d run to the other room to start another DVD and dash back to refocus Zac on his school work before I completely lost his attention.

A mother from my homeschooling network told me about a free online program for phonics building. When I discovered that Zac needed help with phonics, we started using that program. Nathan and the baby were equally as entertained with the program as Zachary was, so we made it a family affair. Zachary was soon accelerating his reading skills. Then, much to my amazement, Nathan was reading. Not single words, but first grade readers, and he wasn’t even 4!

Throughout the process of teaching and establishing a routine that worked for the family, my husband participated by being a good sounding board for me and a P.E. coach for the children. He would take them out to play every day. It was a way to give me a few minutes of peace, and them some time to work off their wiggles. They would go to the park and he would teach them to climb, slide, throw a ball, ride a tricycle or bicycle, etc. Sometimes they would encounter other children at the park. My husband noticed that the children whom we knew were in daycare were reclusive and non-responsive when our children approached them to play. One of our boys would walk up to another child and say “Hi I’m, Zachary. Would you like to play?” And the other child would look at him mutely for a few seconds and then walk off. We started observing our children more critically in public. When we made the decision to homeschool, many people asked us about “socialization.” What we discovered is that there is a misconception that there is a direct correlation between public or private education and a child’s ability to socialize.

I drew a crude, but effective parallel to socializing children and dogs. If one were to take a bunch of dogs and put them together, one would have a pack of wild dogs. It’s not much different with children. It takes adult interaction to teach children how to socialize, and that starts at home. Our children have been taught how to say Please and Thank You, as well as “I’m sorry” when they’ve hurt someone else. We eat every meal together, and we stress table manners appropriate for each age level. We are teaching our children about respecting other people and their property, starting at home with their brothers and sisters. Because we homeschool, we are immersed in “socialization” every day all day long. Our children learn about honesty, integrity, and personal responsibility at home, and then take those lessons and apply them out in their world, which consists of the park, church, the swimming pool, and anywhere we go that they encounter other people.

A recently discovered side benefit of homeschooling is that our children are relatively insulated from bullying. Now that Zachary’s peers have been in school a few years, we’ve noticed some bullying tactics cropping up amongst the public and private school children. Zachary isn’t old enough to be able to put a label on it, but he knows he doesn’t like the behavior or how it makes him feel. We’ve used those unfortunate interactions as teaching moments for things like The Golden Rule: “If you don’t like the way it makes you feel, then don’t do it to others.” Bullying has also made his Dad and me more vigilant in watching what happens with our children’s social interactions, but that is our job as their parents, homeschooling or not.

So many parents have said to me “I couldn’t possibly homeschool my child.” The reasons given are as numerous as the parents who say they can’t. One of my favorites is that they didn’t do well in a subject like math when they were in school, so how could they possible teach math to their child. “Guess what?” I respond. “This time you get the solutions manual! Plus you get to pick the math program that you understand. That makes it a lot easier to teach.” I usually get a smile if not a nervous chuckle. But, alas, sadly, they are correct; they probably can’t teach their child. Not for lack of ability, but for lack of determination.

On the days when there is more arguing and bad attitude than progress, homeschooling is discouraging at best. It can be infuriating and frustrating for everyone involved. One child’s bad day can bring the entire household to a screeching halt. Too many days my husband has come home to find a child sulking and me in tears, ready to quit. Homeschooling brings a whole new level of discipline to the family. Not only do I have to address “normal” infractions of sibling rivalry, I also have to deal with bad school-related behavior. I wear two hats, Mommy and Teacher, and the line between the two is all too often blurred. What gets me through and beyond those bad days is the determination that teaching my children is my responsibility. Success or failure is up to me, especially while they are in their early grades. Without that determination, no parent can possibly homeschool their child.

And yet determination doesn’t keep us homeschooling year after year and with each successive child. Every year we evaluate our progress and our children and make a conscious decision of whether or not to homeschool. What keeps us going is the realization that we know our children better through homeschooling than we would any other way. I know that Zachary needs a time limit challenge to complete his assignments, and when he says he doesn’t like math, it’s only because he is so far ahead of grade level that it’s finally becoming challenging for him. I know that Nathan learns better when he can manipulate things. And I know that when my children are cuddled in my lap for reading, they absorb more material than when given an assignment and sent off to do it by themselves.

When I realized my son was having trouble determining when to borrow while doing a subtraction problem, and I wanted to kick myself for not catching it two months earlier when we were learning about multiple-digit subtraction, I reminded myself that we homeschool. That means that if we have to stop our progress and back up, we could do that, again and again and again until he gets it. Public schools don’t have that time to devote to an individual child. That “no child left behind” would be, well, left behind. But not my children.

After only a couple of years of homeschooling, we have enough science and math manipulatives to rival the best private schools and a children’s library that would make most public libraries envious. But why do we homeschool?

It’s because we get to be there for every discovery, every break through, and every moment when we see the light on their faces as they master a new skill.

It’s for the days like when I put the Base 10 blocks on the dining table, and my sons’ suddenly realized that there is a realm of numbers beyond the count of 100.

It’s for a day like we had last week when Zachary was looking through our microscope at pond water and discovered there is an entire community of microscopic creatures, and I watched the expression on his face as the world as he knew it suddenly expanded.

It’s for the overheard conversation between our local state representative and a fellow veteran after my children greeted him as “Mr. Putnam.” The veteran commented to the representative that “you sure have those children trained,” and Mr. Putnam responds with a chuckle that in a culture where children are being mislead that they are equal to adults, their parents have done a good job with them. It’s for when my 5 year old starts talking about the meaning of Greek and Latin root words with his pediatrician and leaves the man shaking his head in amazement. It’s for when my 3 year old daughter climbs into that same doctor’s lap, the very person who delivered her, and reads a page to him from her Dick and Jane reader. It’s for when I catch my children curled up in a chair together sharing a book. It’s for this incredible adventure of being an integral part of our children’s lives. That’s why we homeschool.

An Apple Tree

  We were living in Las Vegas in a rented townhouse and Zac was 2 years old. Alan was working for a large company on a specific project. Occasionally the company would cut back on its work force. We had weathered several of the storms knowing that if the next one eliminated Alan, we were living in an expensive city and couldn’t stay there for long without an income. But we had nowhere else to go. I wanted a home; a nest in which to raise our two boys, and Alan didn’t want it to be in Las Vegas. He owned a house in Platte, South Dakota that he bought before we were married, but it was a fixer-upper located within a stones throw of a major highway with a very tiny yard. Not something in which we could raise a family.

One a Zac’s favorite books was Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. It’s a beautiful story about the life-long relationship between a boy and an apple tree. Zac loved that book so much that when he heard us talking about looking for a house, he wanted it to have an apple tree in the yard.

Every once in a while, Alan would make a trip to South Dakota to check on his property and take care of business. When Zac was 2.5 and Nathan was 6 months old, we made one of those trips a mid-summer family vacation. Off and on for almost 10 years Alan and I had looked at houses in the Platte area hoping to find one in which we could raise a family, but so far, none had been just right. So, as usual, we did some house hunting on that trip. I felt like Goldilocks…this one is too big, this one is too small. On a whim, the day before we were scheduled to fly back to Las Vegas, we drove to a neighboring town. We looked at three houses. One was just right. It was a 100 year old house on Main Street that had recently been refurbished by a couple who lived down the street. It had all of the charm of an old house with the updates of new construction. After our tour, Alan and I climbed into our rented car and he turned to me and said “You like it don’t you?” Gee, was it that obvious? I didn’t say anything for a moment and then Alan admitted that he liked it too, but we couldn’t afford it. I asked if he had asked the “how much” question. He said no. Well, I had, and when I told him how much, he excitedly exclaimed “We can do that!” Yes I know. But we left without making an offer.

Alan doesn’t do anything without a lot of research, thought, and prayer. Usually it takes him forever to make big decisions. Imagine my surprise when he called me at lunchtime a few days after we returned from our trip and said that he wanted to make an offer on that house. He felt an urgency, and I felt a peaceful excitement. So he made the phone call to the husband of the couple who owned it. The wife answered the phone, and after Alan identified himself and why he was calling, the wife asked if her husband could call him back when he returned from trimming the apple tree. Well, of course, but what apple tree? The one in the backyard of the house that you want to buy. The tree that neither of us had noticed. The house was an answer to prayer for me and Alan. But more importantly, was the prayer that God answered for a little boy. An apple tree in the backyard of the first home we owned as a family.

Zac is 7 now. He has climbed that tree, swung from its branches, and played in its shade. And so have his little brother and sisters. In the spring it graces our yard with gorgeous apple blossoms and in late summer it produces apples from which we’ve fed babies homemade applesauce and apple butter and made delicious apple wine.

I love the constancy of trees. Children will grow and change. The baby that I nursed under that blossoming apple tree one spring will too soon be grown and raising babies of her own. But the tree will remain to shower us with sweet smelling blossoms in the spring, apples in late summer, and orange, yellow, and red leaves in the autumn, year after year after year.

It's About A Vision

It’s the hub of our family. It’s where we meet at least three times a day. New ideas are discussed and old ones rehashed. It’s covered with homeschool books, math manipulatives, science projects, and greasy finger prints. It’s our dining table.

So what’s the big deal about a dining table? Well, nothing unless the family has out grown it. We started with an antique game table. It was 3’ by 3’ with two 1’ breadboard extensions and four massively thick table legs that were always in the way when we tried to use the six chairs. So with our growing family, we needed a bigger table. We knew more about what we didn’t want than what we did.

Daddy's Helpers

 Then there was my vision. I grew up with a holiday table overflowing with at least four generations of relatives. Most of those people are gone now, and the family has dwindled. Alan’s side of the family is also scant. To complicate things, we live far away from the rest of our families. When we started our family, I had a vision of a huge holiday table overflowing with our children, their spouses, and their children. Our family table wasn’t big enough for our everyday use, much less my vision.

So began the search. After much looking through stores and on the internet, we finally came to the conclusion that we’d have to have a table custom made. We wanted it to be rustic enough for everyday use and yet nice enough to be dressed up; just the right size for meals and homeschooling, with extensions for years down the line when we welcome sons- and daughters-in-laws. The table legs could not be in the way, and the chairs had to be comfortable so people would want to linger and talk or play games in front of the fireplace.

Finally we found the perfect source for our table and chairs. We talked with Jane from E-Custom Finishes, a company out of Massachusetts. Jane listened to our needs and concerns and talked with us about our ideas. She patiently made suggestions and then waited for us to make decisions. We selected a trestle table made from thick slabs of reclaimed oak barn wood, and we specified the degree of smoothness and a brown cherry finish. We asked that it be 7’ long and 42” wide with two 18” breadboard extensions. We added 12 fan-back chairs in a matching finish. Then we settled in to wait while Jane and her staff went to work. Two and a half months later the crate arrived. After days of rearranging furniture, unpacking boxes, and everyone helping put the table together, it was finally in place and it’s perfect! Part of a vision fulfilled. Just in time for our first holiday meal…Easter! A celebration of new beginnings. Some of our family use the chairs, others require booster seats, and still others are in highchairs, or, my favorite, Daddy’s lap. One day the vision will be complete; the extensions will be on and all the chairs will be filled. Who knows, we may still need that antique game table for an overflow table. It’s a table on which we can make new traditions and celebrate old ones. A table to grow on and with.

She's Reading!

She’s not even 3.5 years old and Bethany is reading. I’m not talking about reading letters or simple, single words. She’s reading SENTENCES in first readers like Dick & Jane books.

I suppose I should not be surprised. Bethany is the third child I’ve taught to read. Like her brothers, she has been read to daily since before she was born and has been saturated with books. Just for fun, she started sight-words before she was 1 and phonics shortly thereafter. Towards the end of last year, I noticed that she was reading more and more of the words when we settled down together for bedtime reading. So I acted on a hunch and pulled out the first reader books. She was off and running. Thirteen readers later, she’s on the last one and ready for more challenges.

I’ve always believed that once a child learns to read, half the battle for learning is won. Reading equips the child to learn and discover on her own. A good book takes us to places and gives us ideas that we would never come up with on our own. She can go places in books that she never dreamed of. When our imagination is stirred and emotions are involved, we can recall so many facets of the story to benefit our own living. It’s one of the most important tools she will have for a lifetime of learning.

And I get to tag along on her adventure! Oh, I still read to Bethany, a lot. But now we share. She reads to me and then I to her. I love watching her face as she studies the pictures. It changes from serious, to laughter, to sad in the twinkling of an eye. Then she settles in to the words and the rest of the story unfolds. It’s going to be a magical journey.

A Leg Up

There are so many celebrated firsts in a child’s life like the first smile, the first time a baby sits up, crawls, cuts a tooth, and takes a step. Then the celebrations seem to stop. The firsts aren’t quite so celebrated anymore, but sometimes they are just as monumental. Sometimes we view them as developmental milestones, and yet they are expected so we don’t celebrate them. Things like reading and writing first words get lost in the everyday struggle, and just as the child reaches those goals, there is a press to get to the next level without stopping to savor the accomplishment.

Yesterday Zac had one of those firsts. Not in academics like reading or writing. He does those well, and has been for years. Yesterday he rode a horse for the first time. Oh, he’s been on the back of a pony before, at a friend’s third birthday party. Daddy held him in the saddle as the pony was led around a ring. But yesterday was different. Yesterday was the realization of a dream for Zac, and a new beginning. Yesterday rode a HORSE; an Arabian named Justice. A horse that he had to groom and tack. One on which he learned that guiding a horse doesn’t just happen with the hands, but with the whole body. One for which he learned that a gentle, quiet tone is more accepted and obeyed than being loud and abrupt.

Yesterday I watched my son grow up a little more. I saw him care for another creature and take pride in what he did. I watched him take instruction from an adult who isn’t his parent. And I watched him take pride in himself. Yesterday was a first that we will celebrate and upon which Zac will continue to build.