Books and Covers

At first I dreaded the extra trip to school each day.  Last year, I had a carpool for Adam, and it was great.  But last year, Adam and I got the drive home to hang out and chat.  Since Aunt Michelle is picking him up from school this year, we've replaced our afternoon time with morning time.

Each day, he reads aloud from my Kindle.  He reads one article from The Friend, then gives me a two to three sentence summary of the story.  I enjoy listening to him read, and I love starting off my day listening to simple gospel reminders.

We usually don't chat much.  When he finishes his article, he likes to play math games on the Kindle, trying to beat his time on math facts.  But today the Kindle battery was dying, so I got a little extra time with him.

Not "too cool" to take pics with his mom... yet.
(Backstage at Beauty and the Beast)

Today's article was about a boy who had been in a car accident and was struggling to be positive with scars on his face.  His friend gave him a piece of quartz, and together they smashed it open to reveal a beautiful interior.  Of course, the friend helped the boy to see that his scars had not changed what was inside him.

"That's just like this week's 'saying and phrase'!" Adam said.  (At NPA, the students study a phrase like "don't cry over spilled milk" each week.)

"Really?  What's this week's saying?"

"Don't judge a book by it's cover."  I loved his correlation to school, so I didn't require a summary today.  Grasping the moral is way better than a play-by-play anyway.

That gave us even more extra time, which he eagerly filled with a discussion on stratus, cirrus, and cumulus clouds (if he can remember all three, he gets a special privilege in class tomorrow).  We ended our drive listening to Billy Joel's "Storm Front" to hear the word "cumulonimbus," and I sent him off to school.

Instead of eagerly counting down the days until an extra trip is no longer needed, I'm sadly checking off the chances to spend time with just Adam.  He was born old, so even faster than the standard, his childhood just flies by.  I imagine there will come a time when I will be willing to trade anything for a few quiet moments with my son.  I'm grateful that for this school year, those moments are scheduled in five times a week.