Back in the saddle again

Today was a much better day. It was warm and sunny, as opposed to cold and sunny. I don't know why this makes such a difference in my mood but it seems to have a sever impact. I was able to get out and plant some new flowers. Oregano and rosemary and some new things for my rock garden. It felt good to have my hands in the dirt, kick of my shoes again and feel the warm sunshine kiss my pale cheeks.

We had our first batch of home grown asparagus for dinner tonight with grilled chicken and boy was it delicious! It has started to grow by leaps and bounds and the rain this weekend sent it into a growth spurt like you wouldn't believe. It grew a foot in one day! Of course those shoots weren't very tender, but the young ones were soooo good! The strawberries are starting to flower too so it won't be long until we should have a few berries to enjoy...if we can beat the birds to them.

The boys got haircuts tonight - you will have to wait till tommorrow to see Jared's new doo. He's off to bed now like a good boy should be on a school night. He informed me today that I need to contact his teacher because "she doesn't know how to make school fun" oh dear. he's only in kindergarten! He has a lot of school ahead of him yet but this year alone he has been in three separate schools and had three different teachers. the curriculum is pretty intense too - they are supposed to be reading by the end of the school year. Jared loves books but he is not interested in reading the words anymore. It used to be fun for him but he has lost interest and seems to shut his mind off when we read and tends to just focus on the pictures and make up the story as we go along. I love to read but I'm not sure what to do to get him interested in learning to sound out words. He makes up words that are no where near the word that he is looking at. He knows the sounds of letters so this is what confuses me. But he seems to not even be looking at the word when he "reads". He is great at memorizing and can recite a poem he learned months ago - but if you put the same words in front of him, he will stumble over sounding them out. I think he may have to repeat kindergarten. His focus is not quite as "mature" as it should be according to his previous teacher at our conference. This was during mid winter when he could not go outside and play and we had just moved into a tiny apartment where he could not make any noise. Of course his focus was a bit muddled! He had no outlet for his boundless energy and he was going stir crazy cooped up inside. He is a hands on learner. He learns best by doing. I wish there were schools that adapted to the students way of learning instead of making them all fit into the same standard. Each child is different, why can't we figure out a way to help them grow up to be whom they are meant to be instead of trying to shape them into something that fits the standard?