It is time for the Five Minute Friday Flash Mob of writers. I need to tell you, I missed the Thursday party two weeks in a row due to my surgery for Melanoma. I found out yesterday my pathology report came back clear, so I was celebrating when some of the party people were typing up their five minutes on GRASP. Let me tell you, ladies... I am praying I remember and show up next Thursday because the party time is ridiculously fun.
Now: my words on Grasp…
Morning after morning, I go over Samuel’s homework with him,
attempting to help him the best I can to get it done, all the while wishing I
didn’t feel like it is such a chore.
He goes to an afternoon social skills program and doesn’t get home until 5:30 or 5:45 pm and by the time our dinner is finished, it feels like he has no time to just unwind and be a kid. I attempted to share my distaste for excess homework at his IEP last year, but it didn’t work.
What worked was forging relationships with his teachers and getting their help in sending home assignments and we kept in touch with each other about all things Samuel.
This year, now that Samuel is in the General Education Sixth Grade Class – he has high functioning autism – the subjects are getting more difficult. I grasp at some of the facts and google has become an extra good friend. I forget so much of the World History I haven’t studied since my freshman year of high school.
I am more than slightly shocked that I know my way around simple algebra. That happily surprises me. What else surprises me about the math is I actually find myself enjoying it.
Another surprise: I am a writer, but I didn’t know the different types of sentences we had to identify for his homework today. I grasped at what was what….I knew exclamatory. I knew interrogative – mostly because Samuel’s Dad is a lawyer. There was one, though – making a request – and I have forgotten it even after doing the homework just an hour ago with Samuel. I know Declarative.
I laughed with Samuel and told him how my entire eighth grade year was spent diagramming sentences. For some reason, I liked it then and I like it now.
I realize as I wind up here on Five Minute Friday today, that I actually enjoy grasping for facts and gathering up what the answers are rather than just doing the easy stuff.
Grasping isn’t a bad thing, it is a part of the
process. My fifteen-year-old wise
daughter
said something very wise as I cried earlier this week about not being
able to make her fancy lunches as I am in recovery for melanoma – skin cancer.
She said, “Mom, it is fine that you can’t make me fancy lunches. Most kids only get sandwiches. Most kids make them themselves. I will be fine: this is all part of a process. In sixth months, you will be much better.”
Somehow, I taught her without knowing it that grasping is not something to turn from, it is something to explore with an open heart and attitude.
(I went a few moments over - so sorry!!)
If you are interested in joining the writing flash mob at FiveMinuteFridays, visit here.
A quick look at the guidelines from the gypsy mama - Lisa Jo Baker who is also our ringleader!
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you
need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them
in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And
the heart of this community..
Oh and Ahem, if you would take pity and turn off comment verification, it would make leaving some love on your post that much easier for folks!
OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on:
Grasp…
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Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield.
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