To see “short story // apple picking II”: click here.
To see “short story // apple picking II”: click here.
“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”
Lillia: [This is the face of a tween that doesn’t want to have her picture taken, at least not at that moment.] This week you have been doing so well on your math homework. I already notice a change in you since you started getting extra help. It’s amazing how much confidence you have, just with that little bit of extra practice. You’ve also picked up another after school activity, Art After School, which takes place at the Episcopal Church here in Walpole. I have been trying to get you to go all year because you don’t have a lot of opportunities to do art activities with other kids (outside of your one art class a week at school). I try to nurture your talents and interests without being overbearing. It’s a fine line, but sometimes you do need a little push.
Zane: This week you’ve developed a very strange rash! It doesn’t seem to itch or really bother you, except occasionally. I don’t think it’s measles or rubella, since you have been vaccinated against them. My best guess is roseola? Oh, these childhood illnesses, always such a mystery! But, you seem okay otherwise. This week you also got to bring snack for your preschool class. You helped me make corn muffins for them, and you were so proud. Sadly, you missed both your “sharing day” and your class trip to the apple orchard because of your rash but, thankfully, you are too young to be upset about it and I promised you that I would take you apple picking on our own next week.
Happy we who can bask in this warm September sun, which illumines all creatures, as well when they rest as when they toil, not without a feeling of gratitude…
— Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)
The title of this post seems a little misleading, given the preponderance of colorful foliage herein. But, today it is still (technically) “summer.” Though I’m not entirely despairing, I do feel a little bit as if I’m not quite ready to let it go. The weather was so mild this year, it almost feels as if we were cheated out of a proper summer; I said almost, okay? So, despite his having a nasty cold virus, Zane and I took a little walk in the woods just to revel in summer’s last moments. (I think we might have made contact with some poison ivy, so that sours the whole thing a bit, but we’ll have to wait and see if either of us have a reaction.)
With the autumnal equinox just a few days away, I’m afraid I’m a bit late in posting our “late summer” corners. I’ve changed up the nature tables a bit so now Zane has more items to play with and arrange, instead of just pictures and foliage. We had a lot of fun making the little peg gnomes.
“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”
Lillia: This week you were very upset because you’ve been placed in a remedial math program. I know that being remediated does carry a stigma, but it can actually be a good thing! I told you about my own struggles with math in high school, and how I desperately wish I had been remediated so that I could have been more successful. I know it’s hard to accept, but a fact of life is that you’re not going to be incredibly gifted at everything you try. Sometimes you are going to try and fail, and you will face challenges of varying degrees of difficulty throughout your life. Remediation is not a punishment and it is not an indictment of your future potential; it is a gift, and I hope you eventually see it that way.
Zane: This week we’ve been spending a lot of time exploring the trails behind our house. We have been out there before, but you were always too small to really hike by yourself so you ended up being in a backpack carrier. It’s a whole new world being on the ground! This week we saw herons, salamanders, and slugs. You poked mushrooms with sticks, and collected acorn caps and other treasures. You love running down the trails at full speed, though you do occasionally get a little tired. To go all the way around the pond and back home again is about two miles, which is a pretty long way for those little legs to go on their own! I plan to make nature walks a part of our routine on days when you don’t have preschool.