I got this from Dan Phillips’ Hither and Thither a couple of weeks ago.  It makes me giggle.  It’s also encouraging, because like all moms everywhere, sometimes I have Doubts.  Which I won’t get into right now, but be assured, you have never met a mother anywhere who didn’t have Doubts. 

Bulldozer’s speech therapist was giving us our “work on this week” stuff last Wednesday.  He has auditory procession disorder, so naturally he’s more visual than verbal.  One of his tasks that day was to find what doesn’t belong.  Given picture of 4 animals–3 dogs and a cat–he chose . . . a dog.  Why, Bulldozer?  Because it was the only one sitting.  So, he was really wasn’t wrong, was he?  Then the therapists verbally labels the pictures, “Dog, cat, dog, dog.”  “Oh, cat doesn’t belong.”

Part of me is in the education/planning fill in the gaps mode, “Okay, work on categories and vocabulary.  Write that down!”  Part of me is thinking, “How cool that he sees the world like that, not in labels but in actions?”  And then there’s the part who wonders where he put his shoes.

Every once in a while we’ll come across one of those infamous “gaps” in the girls’ education.   You know what?  It’s not very difficult to answer that question, get caught up in a lovely little educational eddy and end up with everybody being more informed, including momma.  But sometimes I hear that voice, “If you missed that, what else did you miss.”  Shut up, voice.

But then I get a comment, oh bliss, from another mom at co-op on what a joy Little Miss is and how truly intellectually curious she is.  Or the kids have discovered something on their own and are busily filling MTG in on the details. Or just hearing my little guys HOWL over Beatrix Potter.  (Who knew that The Flopsy Bunnies was so funny?)

Then I remember: we aren’t trying to stuff their heads full of facts, check off a bunch of boxes on some bureaucrats list, or collect a bunch of awards to shove in a box in the attic.  We’re teaching them to learn and keep on learning; to pursue their dreams and to pick themselves up and start over when the get knocked down.  We’re raising them to take on the world.   They’ll fill in the gaps themselves.

And we’re preparing them for the coming Zombie Apocalypse. Gotta cover the big stuff.