Swimming with the stingray
I woke up feeling sluggish this morning. I know I was tossing and turning while trying to fall asleep last night which is unusual for me. Usually, I all but pass out once my head finally hits the pillow. I think I was feeling anxious from the conversations my husband and I had been having about making some changes involving our portfolio and future retirement. These potential changes could either directly or indirectly affect the kids, so my mind was on these discussions at bedtime. So, I awoke having not really rested, but I still pressed forward with what I wanted to cover academically with the kids. It’s been challenging trying to teach them with everything going on around us in the house. Just hard to get into a nice groove, but I can’t really complain. We are at the beach..
Low tide was in the early afternoon, so we made our way out to the beach after lunch to search for “treasures” as we call them. Unique seashells really, conchs, olives, sand dollars. The kids swam in the tide pools for a while that had formed from the water receeding, and played soccer on the sand bars. We were making our way back to the drier sand when I heard the kids screaming for us to come look at something. What they had found was a stingray in the tide pool they had just been swimming in! It was absolutely beautiful, a lovely pink color, and we were able to get fairly close to it. We watched it swim around for quite a while while it searched for a way to escape into the ocean. It’s body moved so gracefully as it glided along the surface of the sand, but we were all thankful that the children had not been stung by its tail. I still need to try to identify the type of ray that it was. It was a special afternoon for us, experiencing nature in its undisturbed and raw state. Normally, we would have paid money to see such a site, and the ray would have been seen in a tank, not in our tide pool. Fabulous..
The Middle School Years-oh, boy
I had some heavy conversations with my oldest son last night because he was upset. His story was that some friends of his had played a prank on him at recess ultimately leading to embarrassing him with kids pointing and laughing. He told me about it after dinner through a few tears and with clenched fists, saying that he wanted to punch them and get revenge. Now, I have no issues with my son using physical means to protect himself in self-defense, but that scenario is not the norm, so there must be a different way for him to respond. By that time my husband had joined the conversation. The final decision after some meditation and reflection discussing forgiveness was that we encouraged him to talk about the matter with his friends instead of getting revenge as he puts it.
This parenting thing is tough! A mother’s natural instinct is to to fight your children’s battles for them. But, the reality is I have to train and equip them to fight, or handle being the better word, their own struggles. Give them the tools to deal with the world.
I don’t paint a rosy picture of this life for them. Doing so would be a lie. The business worId can be cut-throat, the film industry can be self-absorbed, the legal arena can be backstabbing. The list goes on..I was just reading some bio pieces on Steve Jobs and how he treated people. He was cruel and ruthless many times. I wonder what Steve Jobs is doing right now. If he could come back, would he change his behavior? The thought boggles my mind. So, his former job settings could eventually be what my kids have to manage and handle. Best to start them early on how to respond. For our family, our faith hopefully determines how we react to challenges, although I fail at that miserably sometimes.
Last night night instead of reading up on my Raspberry Pi and coding books I sat on the couch and watched “Dance Moms.” I don’t usually watch TV minus a couple of hand-picked shows. My girlfriend had told me about the show, so I wanted to see it. Holy cow! These women are mad!! I just don’t get it.
Well, off to the academic races for the day.!
Ivy League Homeschooling 