Tree finding
It's Sabbath afternoon. I really want to take a nap, but instead I decide to take the kids outside to study something in nature. They are happily building some sort of fort in Michael's room. I muster my most enthusiastic voice, "Come on guys, we are going to go outside and learn about TREES!"
Two kids come dragging slowly out of the bedroom, where they have been playing and reluctantly find their shoes while I go out to get the dog's leash. They don't know I can hear them whispering.
Amy: "It's going to be a BORING day outside. Mom just wants to make us learn trees.": "
Michael: "Why does mom ALWAYS make us go outside. It's so boring"
Amy: "Yeah, we are going to be so BORED."
Michael: "I don't want to go but we HAVE to go."
I am irritated. Here I am giving up my Sabbath afternoon nap so that they can spend one on one time with mommy doing something outside and they have already decided I am BORING. Sigh.
We go outside. I bring 4 or 5 tree books and we spend the next thirty minutes or so trying to figure out the kind of tree we have growing beside our house. I actually discover it's a lot harder to identify trees than I thought. Kids are as interested in learning about the trees as I'm as interested in learning Latin (which isn't very interested to all my Latin learning friends...). I press on despite the open apathy. Eventually the tree is identified and we troop back inside.
The kids have forgotten about the space adventure and head upstairs to start a new mess with their Sabbath felts. I give up and take a nap. I use to always wonder why my parents never bothered teaching me trees and flowers. They were wiser than I thought.
Two kids come dragging slowly out of the bedroom, where they have been playing and reluctantly find their shoes while I go out to get the dog's leash. They don't know I can hear them whispering.
Amy: "It's going to be a BORING day outside. Mom just wants to make us learn trees.": "
Michael: "Why does mom ALWAYS make us go outside. It's so boring"
Amy: "Yeah, we are going to be so BORED."
Michael: "I don't want to go but we HAVE to go."
I am irritated. Here I am giving up my Sabbath afternoon nap so that they can spend one on one time with mommy doing something outside and they have already decided I am BORING. Sigh.
We go outside. I bring 4 or 5 tree books and we spend the next thirty minutes or so trying to figure out the kind of tree we have growing beside our house. I actually discover it's a lot harder to identify trees than I thought. Kids are as interested in learning about the trees as I'm as interested in learning Latin (which isn't very interested to all my Latin learning friends...). I press on despite the open apathy. Eventually the tree is identified and we troop back inside.
The kids have forgotten about the space adventure and head upstairs to start a new mess with their Sabbath felts. I give up and take a nap. I use to always wonder why my parents never bothered teaching me trees and flowers. They were wiser than I thought.
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