Just let me read: We had an amusing time at Rose's curriculum night. The teacher was reiterating the importance of reading. Just make it a habit, she said. You wouldn't let your kids go without brushing their teeth, right? Make reading that regular a habit. Right. If Rose brushed her teeth as much as she read, her gums would be bleeding. She reads when she wakes up, and then refuses to get dressed or put in her breakfast order because Mary Poppins is about to come down from the stars. She reads over breakfast, but doesn't everyone. Then she sits on the couch and reads when she should be putting on her shoes and brushing her hair. But Almonzo just played a trick on his brother! She tells us snippits from the books, she asks for vocabulary, she discusses the issues, she insists we read the book next, so we can discuss it more. That's why I found myself rereading Encyclopedia Brown the other day. (I remembered most of the puzzles.) When she gets her new library books, she reads on the playground after school. She reads when she's mad at her brother or us or when the day has just been too much for her. And then she emerges sane.

why did she wear that dress?: Talking about books, Rose is in love with Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henke. Good thing too because the principal made it the book of the month. She read it to the whole school, Rose's teacher read it to her, and then Rose checked it out of the library. I love Henke, and it is a good book about bullying and claiming your identity. Everyone at school makes fun of Chrysanthemum's name. But Rose wanted to know if Chrysanthemum feels so sad on the second day of school, why does she wear her favorite flowered dress. The English major in me got all excited; that's how we think about literature (at least those of us who didn't get sucked into the morass of deconstructionism). Rose and I decided Chrysanthemum wore the dress to feel confident.

dripping factoids: At curriculum night, the teacher also told us she uses a drip method of educating—a little bit about mushrooms during botany time, a little bit about the solar system during calendar. I have no problem with this method; it just explains why Rose is always dripping factoids. Did you know it was the autumnal equinox?

her work: In the Montessori system, they do "works," individually picked lessons on all areas of the curriculum. By pick-up time, Rose can be a little vague about what works she did that day, but yesterday I picked her up early for services and she had just been in the middle of a work, so I got a close up view. It was on roots and suffixes. They had a bunch of words and they had to decide which were roots and which were suffixes, and then match them to make a word. I'm not sure if the underlying goal of the lesson was learning how to spell, or understanding the concept of roots and suffixes. It certainly didn't go into defining the roots and suffixes and seeing how you can use them to understand new words, but hey, I remember doing that in 7th grade, not 2nd. Rose only had trouble with classify. She knows the word, but she was pronouncing ify as iffy in her head and that didn't make sense. I didn't know "ify" was a suffix. (I just looked it up. It means "to make.")

emotional ups and downs: I think she's over the pre and starting school freak outs. She's still pretty darn tired, and sometimes I forget that and expect her to act like a sane human being when she is melting. On the up side, she's letting Aunt Julia walk her to school twice a week. Last year, Aunt Julia walked her to school on Fridays, and it was always the occasion for much angst and drama. Now, we're pretty fine. On the other hand, at services yesterday she started fighting over who got to sit next to Miriam. Some serious pouting going on, and then she just collapsed after dinner. She also has a cold. Yes, it's that season.

hugs and kisses: I am so lucky. My girl gives me so many hugs and kisses. I don't ever want to take them for granted.