Golden Moments

Last summer Boo starting putting his new-found skills to use by writing me notes. He would slide them under his closed door during quiet time, since he was supposed to stay in his room. They would say things like, “Is it raining,” “can we go to the pool” and “is it snack time yet?” Sometimes during the day he would come up to me and hand me one of those magnetic doodler things and say, “Here, Mama, I wrote you a math problem.” He’d say it so casually, like doesn’t everyone write each other math problems during the day? He’d check back with me, too, to see if I had come up with the answer. One day, his quiet-time note came shooting out from under the door and it read, “Is it snack time? Is Daddy home? 2+5=____” I sent it back to him with all the answers and an additional math problem. We went back and forth a couple of times until a new note came out saying, “No more math problems!” Who can blame a mother for trying?

Yesterday morning, before I had gotten ready for the day, a note came under my door:

Front

Back

It says “Brectfist on the othr sid” (breakfast on the other side) and Eegs (Eggs). This one really made me laugh. He’d been wanting eggs for breakfast for a couple of days. I particularly like the rubber stamps he added for emphasis.

Seeing him learn and using what he learns is such a pleasure . He reads road signs, which he thinks makes him a good driver, and sometimes tries to read the computer over my shoulder. OK, that’s not such a pleasure. But the little notes he writes really make me smile. He writes so many that I can’t keep them all, just the best ones.

Watching both of my older children learn these fundamental skills of reading and math is greatly satisfying. That moment when all the hard work pays off and a whole page is read without struggle or math facts have finally sunken in- those moments are golden! And they belong to me! We share a hug and maybe a whoop (or quiet whoop, a whoop-ette, if the baby is asleep) and then a sigh of relief. The sibling who was also in the room offers congratulations and shares in the victory. We may even stop and call Daddy at work and share with him. I’m glad I don’t have to wait until the end of a long school day to hear about it. These golden moments, they are blessings not to taken lightly. I am grateful for each one of them.

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