Overheard

Two funny incidents I need to share...

The first happened a few months ago.  At the time, J's favourite CD was a lullaby one of original songs promoting breastfeeding (a free gift from WIC, you can download it here).  It featured one song that goes, "It's alright, it's okay" multiple times, in multiple verses.

Source: breastmilkcounts.com

So when I overheard him singing "It's alright, it's alright, it's alright" in a somewhat tuneless way, I was about to correct him to include "it's okay".  Then I heard the next line: "She moves in mysterious ways."  It seems that the dozen times he has heard Mysterious Ways by U2 in his life has had an impact - even if it was out of tune!  (I don't get to play 'my' music much any more.  Possibly the first time he heard this song was in utero when we went to see U2 in concert in Vancouver.  His hearing was supposedly developing that week and he sure kicked along with the vibrations.)

The second incident was this week.  A wee while ago I was throwing our recycling in the community bin at a local school when I noticed the library had been culling their big books collection.  Being an educational magpie, I swooped up anything that looked like emergent reader stuff before the rain started and brought it home.  J had a blast (and still is enjoying) turning the giant pages and having me read to him.  He even can 'read' along with me for some bits.

One of his favourites is a book called It Came To Tea by Hope Hucklesby (not to be confused with Judith Kerr's The Tiger Who Came To Tea).  It is about an intimidating stranger coming to door, shyly requesting help with a puncture, and eventually he is invited in for tea, where he turns out to be quite sweet.  The illustrations feature a very shaggy, muppet-ish monster with knobbly knees.

Anyway, I am doing something else when I notice J playing with his motorcycle and toy lion (shaggy mane!), saying something in a deep voice over and over again.

That's when I realise he is quoting the book, using his lion as 'It' and his motorcycle as a prop: "Bike's got a puncture.  Could use a patch or two.  I'm not sure how to fix it -- do you know what to do?"

A good reminder that he soaks up everything he is exposed to, and then it comes back in some form!

Public Safety Announcement

In addition to warning you stay out C's way when he is in a fiberglass leg cast (that thing can deliver a hefty bruise if aimed carefully enough), I came across a post the other week that I wish I'd read while I was in teachers' college.  Although I've never needed to rescue someone in my care while swimming, I was looking for the wrong signals.  And I personally know at least one family that tragically lost a member to drowning.

The blogpost linked to a site with an article explaining what drowning really looks like and a further link to a video of what has been termed the 'instinctive drowning response'.  We've been conditioned by television and the movies to look for someone splashing wildly or calling for help, and I can remember being taught to raise one arm if I needed assistance in the water.  But when people really do need help, they're not able to behave this way, and the window of opportunity between distress and needing resuscitation is short - possibly less than 30 seconds.  I strongly urge you to go check out this site before you next head out to spend some time near water.

On a lighter note, do you know how hard it is to keep a crawler away from water in the home?  Even emptying a dishwasher is a hazard for C's cast, since he wants to climb in, and in the bath, and in the toilet, and play with drips from his sippy cup... He is desperately waiting until he can have more than a spongebath again!  Me too.  I'm tired of all the chasing.

Here's one of his favourite dry spots.  It gets him close to J's seat at the table (where all the fun stuff happens) and is a bit of a mission for Mum to reach in around the table legs!

St Brigid's Day

Today is Saint Brigid's Day. It brings fond memories of my years teaching at Holy Family School, founded by the Brigidine sisters. When N and I were in Ireland we visited the church at Kildare. This year St. Brigid's Day also brings a tinge of sadness, as I heard this past week of the death of my former principal at HFS, Barbara O'Reilly-Nugent. I haven't been able to pin down details yet, but when we visited NZ in 2010, Barbara was ill and not expected to live long then. I was fortunate to have visited her and said my farewells, but my grief isn't any lesser at the moment. Barbara was a strong, Godly woman, whose faith, leadership and compassion were exactly what I needed at that time of my life. She was part of the reason I decided to study at Regent, and I will miss her.

At the start of a term

For all those who teach, in whatever capacity (school, parent, boss, friend...), here are some inspirational stories to get you dreaming. 1. An offering for teachers from Australian children's author, Morris Gleitzman: Saving Ms Fosdyke 2. A poem about what real Christian education should look like, from my friend Jenn, in the style of Wendell Berry: The Mad Students and Teachers Liberation Front