School Daze

Jeanna G2 Comments

My daughter’s school year was cancelled yesterday. That’s it, no more second grade. Friday the 13th of March was the last day she had recess, walked single file down the hall, and sat on the rug for morning meeting. We celebrate a snow day, but not the absence of school for five months.

We both cried at the announcement. She misses her friends terribly. She loves her teacher. She even likes the learning part. I cried for her. Second grade was one of my favorite years. I also loved my teacher, Mrs. Warner. I miss the simplicity of those times. When my daughter goes back to school, she’ll be a third grader, and along with that comes state testing. She’ll still have a fun year, I’m sure, but it’s like her life will be getting serious already.

I’m her teacher now. We have assignments for remote learning, but I think I’ll try to use this time to teach her what I loved so much about second grade. I’ll have to time travel a bit. I do remember we had an incubator to hatch baby chicks in our second grade classroom, but the power went out over the weekend, so we never made it to the hatching part. I don’t think I’ll try that lesson at home. I do remember we read a lot of Shel Silverstein. I’ll start there and see where it takes us.

What was your favorite lesson from elementary school? If you could repeat a school year, which one would it be, and why?

Good luck to all of the new homeschoolers out there!

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

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Do you have recurring dreams? For the longest time my recurring dream was of flying. I would be walking along, and when I approached a crowd of people I would simply push off one foot and begin flying over them. My flying technique looked like the breast stroke. I thought maybe my dream was trying to tell me I was impatient, but maybe it really was a wish to fly.

One summer I decided to make my wish come true by jumping out of an airplane! There was a skydiving center at a small airport near where I was working at the time. One of my coworkers had his own chute and had made several jumps, so I asked him to let me know next time he was going. He said he’d go that day! Well, I’m not one to go back on my word, so I jumped in the passenger seat, and off we went!

I paid just shy of $200, put on my jumpsuit, shook hands with my tandem instructor, and off we headed to the plane. I had been on small airplanes often in the past, so I was fairly comfortable in the loud, tight space. Don’t get me wrong though, I had quite a few butterflies in my stomach. I was given a few brief instructions on what to do during various points in the dive, and then it was our turn.

I was on my knees looking out from the side of the plane and then we just tipped forward into a somersault. It was amazing! And so, so loud! The wind felt like it was rushing through me. We fell for a bit before he pulled the chute, and then the noise whooshed away. The rest of the ride seemed slow until just before we landed. At that point the ground seemed to rise up pretty quickly. We had a somewhat graceful landing as we slid in on our rear ends, and that was that!

Another coworker followed us to the airport and I’m grateful she snapped some before, during, and after photos. My pre-smile was a bit shaky, but my post-smile spread from ear to ear. That experience was one of the most exhilarating of my life! I am so glad I took advantage of the opportunity.

Interestingly, I haven’t dreamt of flying since then. I guess it really was a wish come true. Now I have dreams of tidal waves and tornadoes, so I’m not sure what to do about that!

So what are your dreams? Could they be wishes that your heart is making? And how will you make them come true?

Port Nostalgia

Jeanna G2 Comments

Like most of the world right now, I am home. Not that I’m happy about the reason we’re all told to stay home, but I am happy about having a break from my fast-paced life, so I’m trying to make the most of this time.

The #GenX memes and tweets have me pegged; I love being alone. I was a latchkey kid with a wild imagination, so I grew up knowing how to occupy myself.

My 8-year old daughter, however, is not quite as happy about being home with no one else to play with. Before now she played in after-school care with a ton of kids until I could pick her up and then race her off to her extra-curricular activities. So now we’re home. Just us two. And her eyes are drilling holes into my soul. So although I’m perfectly content milling around the house doing nothing, I have a bigger role in supporting my daughter’s childhood.

So I’ve decided to take this time to introduce her to some of my favorite childhood activities. I taught her to ride a bike. We hula hoop, dribble the basketball in the driveway, go on nature walks, and draw chalk art on the sidewalk. Yesterday I set up the tent in the backyard and told her she now had her own she-shed. She glamped it up and sat in there reading books all day. We ventured back to it at night to gaze at the stars. I moved my beat-up old Ikea table from the shed to the spare room for her to use for slime-making, painting, and other crafts. We’re building LEGO sets and piecing together jigsaw puzzles. And the board games! I taught her how to play Sorry, Chess, Monopoly, Life, Clue, Chinese Checkers, Mancala, and Battleship. We pulled out the deck of cards and I’m teaching her how to play versions of Solitaire. We plugged in the Pac-Man joystick to the TV. Now if only I had kept my Nintendo with the power pad!

It’s been a true joy to play with my daughter in the ways I used to play as a child. I look at her and think, “I bet we would’ve been friends if we were both young at the same time.” And then I catch myself and realize, we can both be young at the same time. It’s not so hard to revert to my childhood, especially when given the gift of opportunity.

I like to think that being home is keeping us safe from the storm. And I also think a lot of us are experiencing nostalgia.

So what did you play as a child? What do you wish you could play again? And what’s stopping you?