on our way to normalcy
House on Red Corner · 2010-01-29 · Bud, EJ, Eckenrode
[photo — not archived by Wayback]
When I say normal, I do not mean some mythical mean person (mean as in the mathematical average not demeanor) rather I intend to say that our family has shifted to a place that our collective emotional status occupies the greatest amount of time. We are certainly well within one standard deviation of that emotional standard. One of the greatest indicators that we are doing things properly, is that when I go to pick up TheBubster from her new school, yes we decided to enroll her, she is not ready to leave; She really does want to keep doing what she is doing.
Today, it was really really cold, almost Boston cold, so when I dropped TheBubster off at school I was not looking forward to rebundling LittleBud and myself to make the return trip up and down the numerous stairs between the classroom and my desk. So the two of us stayed and joined in the festivities. I immediately began to update and upgrade the desktop computer the kids use; these kids have an Ubuntu desktop that was one upgrade cycle behind. You know, I am all about upgrading.
Then looking around the closets in the Studio, which is labelled as the Crazy room, I found a small violin case which had a child’s violin. I opened up the case and found an app on my phone to help me tune the instrument and proceeded to give a teeny, tiny lesson in playing the violin to the interested kids. TheBubster was first in line and quite interested. It looks like I am going to be doing some internet research about violin playing so that these kids can get a start in using this instrument.
After lunch, which was wonderful lentil soup made by the school director, a guitar player lead a little jam session for any kids who wanted to participate while other children, TheBubster included, went to run around the in gym. I played the recorder during this session. It was a cheap plastic soprano recorder but it was fun to be a part of this; LittleBud was asleep in the stroller the whole time. At the end of the day, TheBubster was completely exhausted and unwilling to tear herself away from the learning environment and “What is she learning?”, you might ask.
Good question.
Her vocabulary has exploded. Her self-confidence is vastly improved and her artwork is developing very very well. Her interest in Batman is continued and she has added an interest in Mario from Nintendo. She has a strong narrative about characters that she plays with including a green dinosaur stuffed animal she has named Curly Shirley. I’d say she is doing perfectly for her age, and in a few more weeks I believe we will have reversed the effects of the public school system.