02/03/12

1.  Day 4 of hives for poor Mosey.  He's been living on Benadryl.  I'm amazed he can still function during the day!  It's weird--the hives migrate around his body.  They're a little better on his arms, but worse on his face today.  Poor boy.

2.  We went to eat dinner with some friends tonight.  They have 3 little kids (and another on the way).  Their 5 year old and 3 year old sons are learning the violin and are so cute.  They have 1/10 size and 1/32 size violins!!  They look like these itty bitty toys.  After dinner we had an informal concert.  The boys all played something on their instruments.  It was a good, low-pressure opportunity for them to perform, which I think is important to keep them motivated.  I thought about bringing my violin, but I don't have anything that's performance-ready, and honestly, it can be discouraging for me to play the violin and be confronted with my loss of ability as I've lost sensation and dexterity in my fingers due to MS.  My fingers only started to be affected a few months (maybe even just weeks) before my transplant.  I often wonder how things might have been if only I had been able to have my transplant 4 or 5 months earlier.  I would be walking, that's for sure, even if a bit haltingly.  My fingers would have remained untouched.  But, there's not much point in going down that path of thinking.  I'm just glad I had the opportunity when I did.  I hate to think about what would have happened if I hadn't been able to go through with it.

3.  I kept my no-yelling (in anger) resolution today.  Progress!  But that doesn't mean I haven't had other moments of self-recrimination when I recognize that I could have handled one situation or another better.  In our school lessons, I teach with a heavy use of the Socratic method.  I think it's so important because right now the most important thing is not *what* the boys learn (although that is important), but how they're learning, and the skills they are developing along the way (especially analytical thinking and writing).  I think I sometimes drive Brigham to distraction because when I correct his work, I rarely tell him exactly what's wrong and how to fix it, but ask him questions hoping to lead him to the right answer on his own.  When writing down answers to questions, or showing his work in math, he frequently says, "It's obvious what I mean, mom!"  But its important to be clear and systematic, even when things *do* seem obvious (to him).  Clear thinking, good writing, and showing your work in math are the most important skills I can teach them this year.  But I'm questioning my methods a little.  I think I need to be more responsive to Brigham's frustration level.  Today he was writing an answer to the question, "How do electromagnets make high-speed trains go so fast?" (or something like that).  He wrote, "The magnets make the train not have friction so it can go fast."  Well, this is true, but it's not the full answer.  To be really clear, he needed to write, "The electromagnets on the track and the bottom of the train repel each other, causing the train to levitate which eliminates friction between the train and the track."  He kept *almost* getting the answer.  He got to, "The electromagnets make the train levitate so it can go faster."  This is also true, but still doesn't explain why the train levitates (the electromagnets repel each other), or why it goes faster (friction is eliminated).  So I would ask him, "OK, so how do the electromagnets make the train levitate?  How are they interacting?"  I knew he knew the answer, I just wanted him to say that the magnets repel each other.  But I could not nudge him to the final step, even though I knew he knew it.  He ended up almost in tears, and definitely really mad at me.  So, that was a fail on my part in helping him in science today.  I should simply have asked him, "Can you explain to me why it is that the magnets make the train not have friction-- being sure to use the words repel, levitate, and friction?"  He probably would have gotten it then.  Oh well, I think I'm slooowly learning at least.  I'll do better next time.  Hopefully he will forgive me for driving him crazy.