Flashback Moments and Avoiding Crushing Blows

So near the end of the story one of the Characters usually has these flash backs of all these moments that add up to that Character knowing that the other Character loves them, has loved them all along and that they truly belong together.

Today might have been one of those moments: Benjamin had a cultural fair in the second grade today. He has been planning it since before I left for Africa. He had chosen Italy for his topic. The day before yesterday, he changed his mind and decided he wanted to do Liberia. He printed pictures off the computer, made a poster board, and wrote down very exactingly, all the facts that Theo gave him. He brought some Liberian money, clothes, and carvings to share with the class.

We went to watch his presentation, Theo, Blessing, Sophie, and I. Ben even had Theo help him demonstrate the Liberian shake and snap handshake. I don't know if Theo and Blessing appreciated that Ben was motivated by love and pride for his new brother and sister. I don't know if Ben even understands that, but I hope that this will be part of the flashbacks that occur, when in their hearts our family truly fuses.

Tried to avoid a crushing blow to my darling Theo today. I thought I better check his long division, because it didn't seem correct to me. It wasn't. It was hard for me to tell him that the way his teachers at the AFAA house had taught him was incorrect and help him make the necessary adjustments. It was even harder when I found out through teaching him that he didn't know how to borrow when he subtracted.

Here is a boy that felt confident in his math skills. He had told me he wanted to study mathematics. I was worried that this would shake his confidence. However, by the end of our little study session, he could borrow with out any problem and complete long division problems with and without remainders.

I told him that he has a very good math mind! That many people have trouble learning math and that he is very quick at it. That maybe he hasn't learned everything yet, but he had proven that he could learn everything and very well. He seemed happy with that.

In other news: Blessing's silent treatment only lasted about an hour yesterday and she returned to her happy self. We have reached book 4 in the BOB learn to read books. The problem there is very often she will look in the air and guess from the list of words that we have already learned. I have to keep telling her to "look at the word."

Last night's dinner was not the hit that the fried chicken and Spanish rice were the night before. However, I can't FRY everything or we will all end up huge with clogged arteries! Tonight I am trying a beef stew and I'll make rice for them to put it on if they like. Cross your fingers for me!