Top Dog

Woohooooo! I'm back to typing! It takes a long time and I have tons of typos, but I can blog. Everything I have been trying to do lately takes me four times as long as it normally would. So, our life had slowed down quite a bit. I'm still working on regaining my range of motion, so my hand is very weak. But... enough about me.

The kids have been doing so much. it breaks my heart that I can't really take pictures with my left hand. I've taken a few, but they are very bad. So all I have of the past 2 months is memories. Despite my injury, the past two months have been wonderful. The kids have blossomed so much with their new responsibilities. I'm not able to cook or clean much, so the kids have been pitching in a lot... by choice. I have been much more patient about teaching them new skills, like cooking, because I am completely unable to do it on my own. Either I teach it patiently with everyone having a good time or it doesn't get done.

Now, on to Owen's newest passion. We had to go to the thrift store to get Bridget some new summer clothes (this, of course, was weeks ago) and Owen discovered the game aisle. He bought a huge stack of board games with his allowance and has been playing them nonstop. His favorite game is called Top Dog. The game contains 24 cards. Four cards of each color/breed with named dogs. For example, Dusty is on a yellow card denoting the breed terrier and is a Bull Terrier. Owen has charged himself with memorizing all the information on all 24 cards. I thought it was interesting that he chose to use rote memorization. He asked me to quiz him until he could get all the info correct no matter which piece of information I gave him. He loved the challenge. I think it is funny that all the things schools claim to 'teach' children really are natural skills that they force them to perform on their schedule. Is rote memorization a skill that must be taught at a young age or they lose the ability to learn it? I don't think so. When the kids want to learn something bad enough, they will find the manner that works best for them.