Teaching moments

An earthworm my husband turned up in our flower bed,

We now have two local grandchildren.  We have three more in another state but miss the daily wonders of "teaching moments" with them.  About twice a week we have some quality time with our almost two-year-old granddaughter.  Almost everything is new for her and it is wonderful to watch as her little mind tries to file each experience away for further consideration.

Some of her favorite books at Grandma's house are the classic Richard Scarry picture/vocabulary books that we read to our own children.  In Busy Town Scarry puts a cartoon worm named "Lowly" somewhere on every page.  It is a favorite game to find Lowly wherever he is hiding.  Last weekend Clio stayed overnight at our house so her parents could have a rare night alone.  Early Sunday morning Bob was turning over the soil in the flower bed and Clio was helping.  The worm above came to the surface.  When we told her it was a worm, she immediately giggled and said "Lowly Worm."

That same morning I said to Bob, "Now what should we do with Clio?"  Clio answered, "Go park," and so we did.  The photo below is her first experience with what she called, "Jumping water."

I had no grandparents as I grew up. Two were dead before I was born and two disappeared with the divorce.  Young parents work so hard these days.  It is almost impossible to meet the financial demands of supporting a family without two incomes.  I am honored and privileged to be able to witness and fascilitate these teaching moments that are so important to children and yet the parents are often too over-extended when the kids are young to do as much with them as they'd like. 

Comments

[Fran aka Redondowriter]

Grandkids are totally miraculous, aren't they? It's really special when you do get to see them often and actually feel like you are playing a part in their growing.

[FiveAcres]

What a lovely, evocative photo.