This summer Maddie and I are going to continue working on a bit of school in the mornings or whenever we can fit it in during the day. I’m ok missing it some days, because, well, it is summer, but I also want to set a goal of her knowing her addition facts by the end of the summer. Having her master her addition facts by the end of summer will give her a tremendous boost as we go into the fall school year. Addition facts is the only subject I am going to ask her to do this summer, I’ll perhaps ask her to journal some, but she has become a great reader and I believe that a summer of reading is all the reading and spelling she needs. She loves reading science and I am happy as a lark how she has come into the love of reading. Makes my heart down right happy and giddy.
This morning after doing a few cleaning chores and getting our house some what back in
order I asked Maddie to sit down and work on her addition flash cards. You would have thought I asked her to find clean the whole house by herself and do home work all day long. If she had sat down and got right to her flash cards she would have been done in about 15 minutes, give or take a few minutes. But, it took way longer, because she choose to loose it, sulk, pout, and drag her feet. This lead Maddie and I into discussing breakfast, what does breakfast have to do with flash cards? Well, a lot crazy enough.
Maddie and I discussed the difference between a breakfast of cereal and a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. I asked her which breakfast was going to give her the most energy, I asked her which breakfast would take the longest to prepare, and which one was the most worth it. We talked first about cereal, we talked about that cereal in and of itself is not bad or horrible, and sometimes if in a hurry it’s an ok breakfast, not awesome, but ok. We then talked about the big breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and hash browns. The big breakfast takes a while to make, it takes a great amount of effort, but you also get a great amount of reward. You have an all around breakfast that is going to keep you filled longer, it’s going to give you longer energy than a bowl of cereal would. But, it takes longer to prepare, to make, and you usually want to sit down and enjoy this kind of breakfast.
Such is the case of life, we can pour cereal, rush through and be done or we can put forth the
effort and hard work it takes to do the hard things and have a bigger, more fulfilling reward. Such is the case with flash cards, a good attitude, or anything worth it in life. Learning addition facts so that they simply roll off your tongue easily requires the patience of preparing and making a big breakfast. Counting on fingers, doing chores with a lazy attitude and not doing them thoroughly and properly is like eating cereal, it will leave you unsatisfied and looking for more. Maddie’s brain will be messy and feel out of order, because she won’t be able to quickly pull up the addition facts she needs as she buys groceries, decides if she has enough money for a manicure, etc. Her brain will feel messy as she cuts corners cleaning and finds her apartment or house has some how gotten dirtier than she though it would, how did it happen? Because, in the end she settled for cereal instead of going to the work of making the big, awesome, delicious breakfast.
Some times cereal is ok, but we need to do our best to eat food that will fill us up and last longer over time. Thus, this morning we have learned an important parable about The big breakfast vs. cereal and how it relates to life! So, now, for lunch we are having you guessed it…pancakes, bacon, eggs, and hash browns…because as Maddie realized and embraced today…it’s well worth the extra effort!
Love the correlation!!