So he did. He let *her* show *him* what to do...while I strewed some other interesting things around to see if she would be drawn to them.
So they went from popping the bubble with the dice in it on the Trouble game...to drawing on a fungus Jake and I found in the woods this morning...to playing with our old GeoSafari...to setting up a store with stuff from the kitchen cupboards and our play cash register...to following me into my bedroom while I de-cluttered my rocking chair...
Jake walked past me one time and said, "This is fun! We're just hanging out and talking to each other!"
Funny how a child who has led a completely free life with his parents following *his* heart and his interests and his flow had to see it from *this* angle, from the perspective of a caregiver...to really understand it! He said it's much *easier* to go with the flow of the child than to have your own agenda...
Mm-hmm...just summed up much of unschooling right there! And also learned about how relationships (parent/child...caregiver/child...) are made stronger that way, instead of adversarial.
:)
I asked Carmen if she wanted to look through my jewelry box and she was THRILLED. She and Jake sat/laid there on the floor with my jewelry box in front of them, trying on jewelry...talking...talking...playing pretend...and Carmen would occassionally run out to me (elsewhere in the house), and show me how beautiful she looked with my jewelry!
So nice to have a little girl Presence in our home.
I had my craft wire and river glass in my bedroom, so I put that in front of them and Carmen was interested enough in it to pick it up and play around with it. Carmen loved working with the wire. She kept telling Jake, "I'm PREPARING the wire now..."
She said the wire was "decent!"
She put a large piece of riverglass on the end of one piece of wire and took it for a walk, saying it was her puppy!
She had *fairy wands* that Jake, Sam and I had gotten YEARS ago when we visited Santa's Workshop at The North Pole (the same ones I got when I was a little girl, and my Dad took me to Santa's Workshop!) near Lake Placid, NY (in the Adirondacks). So she decided to turn her puppy into a kittie. She waved the wand and said,
"Abracadabra...
Alakazam...
Kitty You Are...
Kitty I Am..."
:)
Wow.
Even Sam couldn't resist looking at Jake and I with "Awww...SO SWEET!" eyes (that's what Jake and I spend all of our time with Carmen doing to each other!)!
I had written down numerous *Carmen-isms*...cute, enlightening, deep, and absolutely brilliant things that come out of her mouth and her mind. But I can't find it now!
When we were eating lunch, she said something sweet, and Jake said, "Mom...write that down!"
So I picked up the pen and found the paper and Carmen said, "Write that up!"
She sure keeps us laughing.
And this photo:
...was taken just before she put her hand on Jake's arm and said, "I love you."
Jake melted.
All is well.
1 comment:
Anne - I'm *thoroughly* enjoying reading about Jake and Carmen (with a side of Sam and Anne thrown in for good measure). As I read, I keep thinking to myself that if Evyn had an older brother, one like Jake would be pretty much perfect.
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