Mom & Pop Home School

Today Cricket finally internalized a very important academic concept that if retained will stand him in good stead for the rest of his life. What is this vital tidbit plucked from the wisdom of the ages, you ask?

You can skip a question or problem and move on to the next one.

Up until recently he had this funky hang-up in his brain somewhere that caused a total system shut-down if he came across something he couldn’t answer, or that was intimidating enough to cause an unacceptable level of stress. Then, if pushed, utter meltdown could ensue. I was ever so grateful when he got to the point late last year where he could hang on to his composure (most of the time) long enough for me to come walk him through the problem very calmly and carefully and then he could go on.

Have you seen the movie A Bug’s Life? Right near the beginning there’s a line of ants carrying seeds to the anthill, and a leaf falls in between one ant and the ant in line behind him. That ant can no longer see the ant ahead of him, and he PANICS! What are they going to DO? Where’s the LINE? The line is GONE! OH NO OH NO OH NO!!! The ants behind him begin slamming into each other and the whole line comes to a screeching halt. Quickly, a supervisor ant rushes over to help. He calms the ant down, gets him to focus on his eyes, and says something like, “Now remain calm. We are going AROUND the leaf. Ready? Here we go…around the leaf…a little more…look right at my eyes…it’s ok…a little further…and HERE’s the LINE!” The worker ant is SO grateful and relieved! And once contact with the way forward has thus been re-established the line of ants continues following each other around the leaf, back to the line, and on down into the ant hill.

That’s kind of where we were. Wait! Don’t panic! Follow me and we can get THROUGH this! Now…pick up your pencil…

Only today he was working independently on his math (hooray!), and I happened to be…um…occupied in the lavatory…ahem. He’s been really good about math lately, so I wasn’t concerned–only we forgot his meds yesterday morning, and then when I went to clear the breakfast dishes halfway through the morning I found this morning’s dose still sitting there next to his plate (mommy slept in this morning…hasn’t been feeling well the past few days.) I had him take it then, but it hadn’t had time to be absorbed, and his blood levels of meds were already down from missing it yesterday. So there I was in the bathroom and I heard him start to hyperventilate and then holler, “MOOOOOM!” Just like that ant going, “There’s a leaf! Where’s the LINE?”.

Only I could not rush in to defuse and redirect. So I hollered back, “I can’t come yet! Can you skip it and move on to the next one?”

The hyperventilating increased…”NOOOOOOO! It’s tooo HAAAAAARRRRDDD!  I CAN’T…DO…IT…” pant, pant, pant. (Poor kid.) 

I thought, great. There goes school for at least half an hour, and all because I needed a trip to the loo. But I thought it was worth another try, “Just put your hand over that one and try the next one! I’ll help you with it when I get out! You can do this! Take a deep breath…”

Pantpantpant pant pant….pant…..pant………..pant………….   “Ok. I’ll TRY!” Silence.

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“Hey, it worked!”

(Fancy that.) 

Me: “Great! Now try the next one!”

 By the time I was out, he’d skipped two more and almost finished the rest of the lesson (did I mention I’ve been having tummy issues the past few days? It took me a little while. Blush.) We both enthused about how nice it is not to have to panic, and to be able to only have three unfinished problems and be calm, instead of eleven unfinished problems and be a wreck because you couldn’t move on. You could just about see the lightbulb floating in the air over his head. I really hope it doesn’t disappear when he goes to sleep.

 For now, though….

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Yay!