Teaching Methods

During math and writing, Puck just goofed…

“Chubby eight! Chubby eight! Chubby eight!”

“The ‘q’ is smashing its enemies!”

He shoveled fresh pomegranate before his grilled cheese at lunch.

During Quiet Hour he took apart an old computer scanner.

The sun – white gold – already beginning its steep descent at four o’clock found Puck in the tree, waiting for friends to play.

But first, Crackers was in trouble.

I saw Puck trying not to sniffle too hard in the living room. Apparently Crackers had taken a nasty swipe to the side of his cranium, spilling some small bloods. Crackers was placed in the basement to contemplate her sins. After Neosporin had been applied to the slash wound, Puck allowed her to return. She swished her tail around his legs.

“Crackers,” he said calmly, “you can’t do stuff like that. I know sometimes it comes from control, but you still shouldn’t do it. Alright?” He walked from the kitchen to check on the status of the just-arrived school bus. “And don’t act ‘king’ over us, alright?”

Then he dug up worlds of fun with buddies.

My voice was going after dinner. So much reading aloud every day to a kid who can’t get enough words inside his head. Stuffing, and stuffing more and more in there. Voracious.

We discussed Noah’s Ark in one of his final readings of the day. Puck tried to wrap his own mind around the big concepts, stringing together the right words to explain, shaking his head quickly from side to side for emphasis…

“But it would take God zero seconds to come up with a plan to save Noah. Just no… just zero… nothing. No time at all.”

Then I hit up a straight apple juice. Plain old squeezed apples; raw; just the way I like it. And a Korean film of course.