Tag Archives: Morgaine

The Girl Who Wouldn’t Read

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Well, about two or three years ago, Morgaine decided that she didn’t want to read. Liam is a voracious reader. Everyone thought she would be just like him. Her father worried. Was I damaging her by not pushing it? Did she has a learning disability? What had it been so easy for Liam to learn? How would she ever learn ANYTHING?

I left the opportunity open and books around, but she showed no interest whatsoever in learning to read. Then one Sunday morning, she picked up a paper and wrote out some words. They were spelled perfectly and she could read them but she insisted she was spelling and not reading. She DID NOT want to read. So we occasionally started practicing “spelling”.

It became a common question to ask as Morgaine neared grade one, “So, is she reading, yet?” The attention she got for not being able to read was quite significant. She thrived on it. I did begin to worry a little as Morgaine loves attention more than anything else. Would she ever read?

All of grade 1 went by. Morgaine occasionally looked at a book, but try to read, not much. She struggled to read the books needed for the summer reading program and only did it because I insisted that she could. Come September, she started to read, and read quite well. However, she insisted that she hated reading and if anyone said anything about reading she’d say, “I CAN’T READ!”

Well, my little girl, you CAN read (and you actually like it because I’ve caught you reading FOR FUN!).

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Storytelling

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Overheard between my 2 year old, Ruadhán, and 7 year old, Morgaine.

Morgaine: Ruadhán, tell me a story.

Ruadhán: Once there was a monster. A monster truckie, actually.

Morgaine: Oh, yeah?

Ruadhán: And the big monster truck growls *insert cute, but ferocious, growling*.

Morgaine: And why did the truckie growl, Ruadhán?

Ruadhán: Because he had no feet, of course!

When it Feels Like we Haven’t Gotten Anywhere

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Officially, another school year is coming to an end. I’m getting ready to write my end of year reports to the department of education and am looking over what I wrote last year and what my goals were for the year. Liam accomplished above and beyond what I set out for him to do. Morgaine, well Morgaine, it seems hasn’t quite progressed as far academically as I imagined she might have.

What do I do in this case? Is it time to start panicking? Some might thing so. What if she never catches up? I choose to see things a bit differently. Perhaps, she was very busy learning other valuable lessons this year. Maybe it was more important for her to spend time nurturing her baby brother. She spent many a day immersed in colouring and using various art techniques. She explored our yard and grew things with her own two hands. She danced and sang. She was a free spirit. She was happy.

Sitting her down at a desk and forcing her to do thing that she isn’t ready to do, likely would have been disastrous. It would likely make her feel stupid. It would have made her hate learning. So we let things move along more organically. We remind people that she isn’t really reading yet. There are times when we want to say, “If you could just read…..” but we hold our tongue and read the menu, or the book, over and over again. We’ve caught her tried to read and progress has been made so we are gentle and we wait and we know that when her time comes she will learn to read and it will all be okay.

 

Think back Thursday – Water

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My friend, Debbie, has decided to add a theme to her weekly Think Back Thursday meme. I love this idea because I have so many photos that it was difficult to just choose a random one to write about. I am sure that with a theme I’ll be much more likely to participate regularly (and I hope YOU will, too!).

Water is an excellent theme for me as we live one one of the world’s top 10 best islands, Cape Breton (you must look at this <——- stunning picture of the place I call home).

Here are some my own personal pictures of my little island.

The beautiful Bras D’or Look off on top of Kelly’s Mountain.

Freedom on one of our many beaches.

Point Aconi lighthouse. (Don’t mind the odd panoramic view..Mike didn’t get it quite lined up properly).

Waves in Victoria Mines.

We have many inland bodies of water as well.

Won’t you come play (and stay) on my beautiful island? I wish I could get the world to move here. I cannot imagine living anywhere else!

It’s Time to Introduce the Clan

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My family is my life, and since this is a blog about my life I’m sure you’ll be hearing lots about my little clan so it’s time that you get to know them just a little bit.

Liam

This is the (not so) wee boy that threw me into parenthood nearly nine years ago. The time has flown. He was born wise beyond his year, an old soul. He’s my little scientist and a math wiz. He’s the child that you don’t have to homeschool because he is too busy with his head in an encyclopedia to listen to you. He loved to create things with his building toys (symmetry is a must) and spends many hours now drawing and then creating platform games on the computer. He’s quiet and can be on the moody side but he is also funny and witty and a joy to have around.

Morgaine

Morgaine is my little free spirited child. She’s amazingly creative. She’s super social. She’s charismatic. She has no time for school. She’s too busy dancing, singing, drawing, day dreaming. She’s also dramatic and firery. She’s taught me a lot about patience. Times were challenging when she was young and there are times when it feels like we are still feeling each other out. I had a lot of unfair expectations of her when she was wee that were based on her older brother and it turns out that he wasn’t the typical child and we were expecting things that were way beyond her development. We’re healing and she’s growing into a lovely little helper and beautiful being.

Ruadhán

Ruadhán is our little sweetheart. He’s totally a Mama’s boy but that is alright. He is very much a mix between his two older siblings. Loves trains and buildings. He is smart and inquisitive. He is social and talks up a storm (very clearly, at that). He adores being outside and is in love with his older sister that he calls “Kid”. He very attached and at two he is still not letting me get much rest at night as he tends to get the majority of calories through breastmilk and is just too busy to nurse much during the day. The are only so very little once so I’m taking in and enjoying every moment.

These little ones make me laugh and make me cry. They challenge me every day. They make me smile. I love them to bits. They complete me and make me who I am.

UNHAPE

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I’m a little bit sad that the first multisyllable word that my daughter tried to spell was UNHAPE.

I woke up one morning and found this lapbook style homemade book sitting on my kitchen table.

I was quite impressed but Morgaine said, “NO, DON’T OPEN IT!”

So respecting her wishes, I went off to finish my vacuuming. Two minutes later, Morgaine sits on the couch a looks at me and I turn off the vacuum. She says, “You know why I didn’t want you to see it? This…..”

“I found facts about Earth I wanted to copy and I wanted Liam to write ‘facts about Earth’ and he wouldn’t. So I wrote that and then crossed it out because I didn’t want you to know that I was unhappy.”

Poor little one was so sad….but I’m glad she was able to express it.

Her writing has also taken off in the last couple of days (who said you have to teach your children to read and write?). This is another samply of her writing for your enjoyment!

Mom the T.V. is of. The cat is puking. MorgAine did you fed the cats?

(only one spelling error and decent grammar. I was impressed)

Here’s to many more stories!

My Little Budding Artist

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know my little girl better as her temperament has improved greatly and she has enough focus to be able to sit down and work on projects or have a conversation without whining or arguing. She’s certainly a very creative little one, full of imagination and style. She’s always but together crazy creative outfits (changing 5 or 6 times a day) but now that she has the ability to sit still she’s also started creating on paper. For a five year old I say that she has talent. What do you think?

~Giraffe in Acrylic Watercolour~

~Lady in mixed media~

~Self portrait in pencil crayon~

And since my daughter is work colourful and bright, I’m making her a colourful and bright blanket out of wool scrapes and as it doesn’t deserve a post of it’s own here’s a few of the 250+ squares I have to make.

A-Z of Gratefulness: Day 3

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Yes, I feel a little silly posting something as superficial as chocolate as something to be grateful for but my other option was computers because all my friends live in my computer. However, there a million reasons I DON’T like computers (REALLY don’t like computers) so chocolate it is!

I don’t eat a ton of chocolate but it is really nice to have around when my sweet tooth kicks in. We usually keep some rich cocoa powder in the house for those moments and I’ll whip up a hot chocolate with carnation milk (yum, another good C word to be grateful for…carnation milk *lol*). I’ve also been known to grab a handful of dark semisweet chocolate chips in emergency situations! It’s just really a nice thing to have from time to time. We indulged with rich chocolate brownies and vanilla ice cream last night and it was just devine.

Sweet Morgaine, enjoying a sweet treat when she was a wee one herself.

Things My Children Say and Do

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You know the traditional poem “Baa baa black sheep”, right? Well, Morgaine INSISTS that it goes this way….

Baa Baa black sheep
Have you and wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for the lady,
One for the priest,
One for the little boy
That lives across the street.

~~~~~~~~~

We were making soup a couple days ago and I let Liam choose the spices. We are all sitting around the table sipping our hot soup, enjoying.

Mum: Liam the spices you chose for the soup are really good.

Liam: If you like, Mum, you could say that again.

Mum: I like the spice you chose.

Liam: I know. I did a very good job at it.

Trying to  give him the correct response to a compliment….I say, “Thank you.”

Liam: Your welcome.

~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been showing Raudhán that we clean up the table in front of us after we eat by  wiping up in front of him with a cloth after he eats. He was sitting at the table eating slices of apple with my husband when Mike said to me, “You have to see this.” I turn around to see the baby half out of his sweater using the hand from his dressed side to move the empty sleeve from the other side across the table to clean up while grinning a big cheeky grin at Mike.