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| ... climbing a tree at the zoo ... Alice so close to the water you can only see her white coat |
Today she just sat near me and we read Beauty and the Beast.
Not that she doesn’t know how the story will end. Still the rising action makes her eyes go wide and she offers her ideas about who it is that might meet the dad on his return home after he has made his foolish promise to bring back to the beast the first thing he sees. Still we have fun reading together.
That time from me is to pay for the other times when reading is really hard. What, where and when are difficult words to learn. I was showing her that the “wh” sound of these words can be felt on my hand and then I proceeded to show her how to feel that breath on her hand. Then down on the table went those words with other hard words and we mix them up for a word game. Her job is just to pick any of the words off of the table that she knows. When she comes to what, when and where, she says the words and uses her breath with such force that many of the words fly off of the table. I wonder if I should laugh or fake some kind of irritation. I don’t think she knows she will cause quite that disaster, but I feel that she might know that there will be some movement of the cards. Anyway, she says what, when and where with a lovely little “wh” sound. How could I be happier?
Could that be Betty wearing a ribbon skirt from the Summer Gathering at the Esk̓etemc Pow Wow grounds? Seeing that made me smile. I was just reading an article where Tala Tootoosis, a Nakota Sioux, Plains Cree and Mohawk woman, was quoted. In reference to teaching women about the ribbon skirt she said, “It’s teaching them to be empowered and that they already are resilient. Women already have power. A woman is protection because she is a woman. And when you have that understanding you learn boundaries.” Learning to read is so empowering.
ReplyDeleteYou are seeing the skirt on Betty. I happened to go over there, and Alice was wearing her skirt a couple of days ago -- running around in it so cute. Of course see it brings back wonderful memories of that Summer Gathering. How can my life have been made so rich?
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