Lucy, Alex’s piano teacher, shared a beautiful story about a rare creature that she once observed on a public beach. This rare creature was a dad who combined an extraordinary athleticism, the knowledge of a football coach, and the patient wisdom of a preschool teacher.

This gifted teacher man was playing football with his 3 year old son, while the toddler ran between his legs. That alone is a challenge, but it gets even better. The dad came prepared with two balls, a small football (that was really too hard for the preschooler to hold) and a round, red rubber ball. The dad alternated throwing the two balls so that the child felt like he was playing football, but he was gaining confidence with each successful catch of the round ball. The athletic football coach knew how to perfectly time his throw with a cue to the son to head out for the catch. His control of the throw landed the ball right in the kid’s arms every time. And the preschool teacher knew to stop while the youngsters were still having fun.

The point of Lucy’s story is that a great teacher can break down the elements of something as seemingly simple as catching a ball, so that the student enjoys learning.

It’s so easy to forget that simple tasks aren’t so easy the first few times.

Today, Alex & I read two books on archaeology. Then, he brainstormed, outlined, and wrote a paragraph on this subject. Later, I posted this paragraph on his new blog. Sure, a paragraph doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a marathon for a second grader. He is still learning to write sentences! What was I thinking?

So, now we’re going to break it down and work on learning how to write a paragraph. Remember - baby steps first!

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