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terryp

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2001-08-31-9:34 a.m.

My Dilemma

I walked in the girls' room a few minutes ago and Andrew was sitting in a chair with a sheet draped over him. Becky and Benjamin were giving him a pretend haircut and he was being still and behaving much better than he does when I give him a real haircut. I smiled and left to go do something else.

Just now I checked them again and Andrew was still in the chair with a sheet over him, but he was secured with a bungie cord. Becky sat next to him reading to him out of her reader. "He's our prisoner," said Becky "And I'm reading him a story."

"Okay. But what's Benjamin's job?"

"He's guarding him."

(You thought I was going to tell you that they had really cut his hair, didn't you? They didn't. At least not this time.)

This brings me to today's topic: "A Homeschooling Dilemma." Do I let them play or do I make them stop and come do their "real" schoolwork? Isn't reading a story to a prisoner better than reading because you're supposed to read? Isn't it better to stand guard in the prison and hear your sister reading than to be banished to another room so she can concentrate on her workbooks?

Becky's already behind. She's eight and doing second grade work. It's because I let her play too much last year. She had no interest in reading and I didn't want to push her. But the other day I saw them playing and Benjamin was crying. "Poor Benjamin," I said. "What's wrong with him?"

"Oh, we're playing a sad story."

Benjamin cried while he described the story. A little boy had a dog and loved him very much, but the dog got lost and the boy grew up and got very mean. The dog found the boy again one day, but the boy was all grown up then and mean and he didn't like the dog anymore.

And that's why Benjamin was crying. I almost cried, too.

Becky might not be a scholar, but she sure can tell a story and she'll be determined to find a way to write them down.

I'll let them play.

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