Jun. 19, 2009 - Adventures in Vacation Bible School
It's been an interesting week in our house. Either one or both of the older boys have been gone for a whole four hours every evening, participating a local VBS program. Our house has been positively quiet for many hours this week! I learned a few things, too:
Asrat, at age 6, is perfectly well "socialized". He could care less that I'm leaving him at an unfamiliar place with only a few familiar faces for 4 hours. (We wouldn't have done it if we didn't know two of the main teachers who are our neighbors and fellow homeschoolers--we knew he'd be safe with them). He has come home each evening happy and sweaty and exhausted. This VBS theme was music, and apparently he's an expert at making trombone lips.
Gebre, on the other hand, got kicked out of class the first evening because he wasn't interested in sitting down at a table and listening to the teacher. He wanted to play games, and do things his way. Pretty standard fare in our house, but I understood why the teacher couldn't allow that. Gebre usually runs away if he gets even a hint that someone is trying to teach him anything. He's in the process of teaching himself to read in spite of this allergy to formal teaching, which confirms for me that sit-down formal school would be a hinderance to him rather than a help.
Gebre also, when properly motivated, can put aside his normal tendencies and fall in line with the others. When he realized how much fun Asrat was having at VBS, he decided he was going to go back (with the teacher's permission, of course. She was very gracious). He was very firm that he was going to stay the whole time. And he did. At the end of the evening I learned that there had been only one incident, involving musical chairs. Apparently when he didn't get a chair, he was very offended and had a tantrum. However, as he sat out watching the other kids play, the purpose of the game "clicked" for him, he figured out how it worked, and thereafter he was willing to play by the rules and had no more issues.
Biruk, while happy for my undivided attention, was confused and rather distressed by the absence of his brothers. Frankly, I think he was bored to death with nobody to argue with, jump on, or annoy. He kept asking me "Where Adat? Where Gebbe?" and even filled in for them, stomping into the kitchen demanding "What fo' suppa?!" which is Gebre's habit, and "doing school" which is of course what Asrat is always doing. When I put him in the car on the way to pick him up, he looked back at their seats and then at me with a question in his expression. He was thrilled when we finally saw them and immediately started begging crackers off them.
It's definitely the third child that ups the noise and energy level so tremendously. Even on the days that only Asrat went to VBS, those hours with just two boys were remarkably peaceful and quiet. There's a dynamic with three that isn't there with just two.
For all the peace and quiet this week, I really, really missed my kids. One week out of the year is more than enough "away time" for me.
