Lots of people do lots of fun stuff with their free time... we milk cows at Wheeler Farm. $1.00 per squirt. You may wonder why? I recently took an MI class.
This guy named Kagen has this theory that people learn in different ways. For me it was an "ah ha" moment for my daughters, I came to a realization that my girls are naturalistic learners.
Rock collections, discovery channel, leaf collections, are all things that make it difficult for me to walk Paris to school. It's a 10 minute walk that takes us at least 30. "Look at this, smell that, hold this" all phrases that end with me yelling, "come on girls!!!"
Naturalistic learners do the best when they are in nature. They find patterns in nature, they notice things that others would never notice, they remember odd facts, like names of obscure flowers, or habitat behaviors of random insects. These things totally describe Paris. I'm not sure if Berlynn collects things because Paris does, or if she's also the same type of learner.
For any of you that have spent any amount of time with Paris and I, you know that we are the same in all the wrong ways, and different in all the wrong ways. We seem to knock heads a lot. I actually love my job because it helps me to think about things like learning styles and childhood development. It also gives me breathing room from Paris so that I can be calm and collected in my parenting approach when stuff hits the fan.
I have been hoping to reach Paris, and build our relationship, through her learning style. So yesterday, day one of my UEA break, we spent the whole day outside at Liberty Park. 10:30 am - 4:00pm. We played with friends at the park. We fed the ducks, ran up and down the big hill, ate lunch at the gazebo on the island, and examined pine cones. It was a great day, minus the McDonald's rescue extravaganza.
We stopped for ice cream. In the play place Berlynn spyed a bouncy ball in the middle part where kids aren't allowed to go. She has a ball fetish. She collects bouncy balls, I know it's awesome. Somehow she scrunched her head between the gate and the floor and got the ball. The problem came when she couldn't execute the same strategy to exit. Yup, she was stuck, and the gate had a lock. Fortunately the McDonalds manager couldn't find the key! Lucky for us, a higgly town hero works at McDonald's. One of the employees, we'll just call him Julio, took of the apron and hopped the fence. Julio threw Berlynn over to me and the crowd cheered with relief. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little. My friend Tara was with me. We really were a little worried about my stuck little Berlynn.
I got a little sidetracked, anyway, today, day 2 of my UEA vacation, I had a lot of cleaning to do, so Paris decided to make a picnic and go out front with Berlynn and their Meba pets. They were out their on their picnic blanket for 2 hours, looking at clouds, pointing at things, and soaking up the last of the annual sun! I got so much done!
We had planned to meet my friend Jenn to take our kids bowling, which is always fun. Jenn is my friend that did my extensions. That's right my hair is long. Cher long! Anyway, after we bowled, Christina (my neighbor and good friend) and I took the kids to wheeler farm where the girls were able to milk the cow, pet the horses, poke at rabbits, and drive tractors.
At the end of the day I always ask the girls what the favorite part of their day was. Paris, who usually tells me her whole day was bad, said the best part of her day today was the whole day, aside from when she spoke sharp with me which she regretted! She actually felt bad about saying mean things to me! It's a small victory, but I'm milking it for all it's worth. Maybe Kagen did know what he was talking about!
My Special Paris, a toothless wonder!
