I’m sitting on the couch, feeding the baby, and listening to the sounds of the kids learning. It’s a fun sound with lots of silliness and laughing. Before sitting down, I’d sent my son to the school room with his sister; his assignment was to get the numbers chart and help her count to 100 (a sneaky way to give him a little practice as well).
Loudly, with their silliest voices, I hear them count off “41, 42, 43, 44…” They pause only long enough to laugh hilariously at themselves. “98, 99, 100!” And then I hear my son holler out, “Mom, can we count the short way? 10, 20, 30?” Of course, I give permission and then listen to their gleeful voices once more. They finish, but they are not done. Now they are counting again from the beginning, only this time they’ve decided to hop as they count. One—and they jump once. Two—and they jump two times. They keep going until they reach 14, and my son announces that he is getting tired; they hop while they count now, sometimes with both feet and sometimes on one foot, and no longer in the school room.
“28, 29, 30, 31…Let’s spin now!” And they whirl around in the living room like little tops, “69, 70, 71…” until they stumble to 100 for the last time, dizzy, exhausted, and beaming ridiculously. I finish with the baby and give them both high-fives, thrilled to have ended our homeschooling morning with such a bang.
