A Regular Old Mom

I want a prodigy! Do you hear me world? I want a kid that knows what they want in life and has a dream to get there!

Why are some families filled with kids who excel; kids who have all sorts of talents and I cant even get one kid who shows promise in academic ways. When I was growing up our house was filled with prodigy's. We all had grand ideas of what we wanted to be and we worked hard on honing those skills.

My older sister could play any instrument that fell into her hands and now her children can do the same.

I wrote stories and read literature. My first story was accepted for publication in a Sunday School paper when I was ten years old.

The sister right younger then me wrote poetry. The three of us sang and played instruments every night. None of us achieved older sisters status on the instruments but we all played to some degree or another.

The fourth sister was another poet! She wrote silly songs and thoughtful poetry. Even today you can go to her house and see notebooks filled with her writings and poetry. She has scrapbooked a lot of her poems and they're spectacular. I tried to get her to publish them but so far they remain on her bookshelf.

My deceased grandmother was a poet. I dabble in poetry some too. You can find the widget to my poetry blog on my sidebar if you're interested. I don't write poetry as well as my two sisters. I'm more into writing in story form.

So where are the prodigy's in my kids?

Last night I watched a one hour TV show on this family with 11 kids. They dress like the Amish but they aren't in reality, they just like the dress patterns of the Amish. They live in a cabin style house and are homeschooled. The father writes and plays fantastic music. They show the 18 year old son sitting down and playing an incredible piece that his father wrote just minutes before!

The girls sew beautifully! The family is opening a boutique and in one week the girls had sewn 35 dresses and a bunch of little handbags. They had also made soap and some other craft stuff. The two oldest girls were 21 and 15 and there work was incredible! While they were sewing they burst into song; their voices were clear and the notes were perfect! It was some Irish ballad and it was as good as anything you'd hear in the great concert halls of the world.

So why are these kids so gifted?

I asked Tink what she wanted to be when she grew up. Her answer was, "I just want to be a regular old mom just like you!"

A regular old mom?

What???

I'm not a regular old mom!

I'm a writer, I'm a dreamer, I'm a musician, I'm a poet, I'm a great botanist, I'm one of the worlds best culinary cooks, I'm an artist, I'm a .... I'm a.....

Wait!! I'm none of those things!!!

Im a regular old mom!!

In my head I'm so much more, but on the surface I'm a regular old mom! Maybe that's why I cant raise little Einsteins.

Peter has given me some hope. He has spent the last two nights writing stories on the computer. Maybe words wont scare him like they do Tink. And speaking of that, we are shelling out $200.00 for a computer in the shape of a pen for Tink. There's no better way to describe it. It's a reading pen for kids who have trouble pronouncing and understanding the words they read.

The pen reads any words that it is scanned over. It also gives the definition of those words along with synonyms and antonyms. It can translate from 17 different languages. With this pen Tink can read books at grade level and not have to stop for words she doesn't know. It has everything built in into it but you can get separate ear phones if you'd like.

They say that this pen has helped hundreds of kids with reading disorders. I've spoken to two women who have used it and they say that their kids have taken off with this device. The one is now in high school and the teacher lets him use it in class even! I have high hopes that this might be the ticket to Tinks reading future!

Tink and I are launching into a huge Home Economics program that will continue through the summer. Actually one could say that it will continue through Tinks life, but my main thrust is now through summer. I will lay out the Home Ec plans in a future post.

I may not be able to raise a prodigy whose name will flash in lights on marquees across the nation but I can raise kids who know how to be regular old moms and regular old dads, so that's what I intend to do.