Letters, words

Sound it out

Flailing arms

Feeling doubt

Building bridges

In my brain

Ouchie mom!

I feel that pain

I don’t like

To work so hard

I’d rather play

Out in my yard

That cardboard box

There on the floor

Calls my name

To play once more

It’s sunny outside

And my brother is there

He wants to run

Why do you care

Why spell this stuff

It hurts my hand

This pencil yuck

I’d rather stand

On my head

For 10 thousand years

I don’t like writing

now come my tears

please help me

understand

Why this writing

Is so grand

---

Mommy asked

Do you like to read?

Do you remember

The little seed?

I planted in your brain

So large

Reading opens

A door – to barge

Into a land

Of wonder, joy

A land that’s there

Each girl and boy

Imagination

Is there for you

But you must learn

to read, it’s true

You learned the skill!

You opened the gate

imagination is yours

It’s grand, it’s great!

---

I couldn’t read

How sad, Last year

Yes, it was hard

You had to steer

Me though the pains

Of learning that

And I love reading

That’s a fact

Mom, I read

For hours on end

I love it so

I can pretend

Up in my head

With words I read

A brand new world

Such happy feed

All those pictures

Live in my mind

When I read

I truly find

Brand new ways

To think

To do

To learn

To grow

To wait

mom…

I get it

I know what you’re saying

Reading and writing

Together repaying

Without the writing

The reading would be

Not in a book

For me to see

So you just taught me

A lesson today

You taught me that writing

Is the only way

To get all those stories

Onto a page

And learning to do it

Is worth a small wage

The pain of the learning

Will soon be all gone

And I will have mastered

This skill before long

And into the past

Will go all the pain

The bridge will be built

Inside of my brain

So onward and upward

I’ll do this great task

I practice my writing

Whenever you ask

I’ll practice each day

Just like I should

And I will remember

That learning is good

And I thought reading was tough. My daughter is so brave. She is building the bridge between not knowing how to spell and the wonders of spelling fluently. She works it out. Her little arms flail. Groans of pain as the synapses connect in her beautiful brain. She cries, she jumps, she works it out. Do your kids feel the same way?

First grade. I love teaching, I love being there to watch it all happen. I get to have both of my champions here, I don’t miss a thing. The challenges come and the blessings arrive. I watch it all. I love every second that Jesus and His great mercy allow me to be here. I am so thankful that I get to witness this growth.

Thank you Jesus for this day. For allowing growth in all aspects of life. Please change me from the inside out. Please allow me to further your kingdom and let this light shine only for you. Please let me be so much less of who I am, please squash my sin and forgive me. Please help me be so much more of you. Please help me crave YOUR WORD, it is alive and well and the greatest defence against the enemy. Please give me protection as I grow closer to you, the enemy is attacking even harder. Please keep my family safe against the attacks. I love you so much Sweet Jesus. Thank you for the power of prayer. Thank you for your GREAT SACRIFICE, thank you for Salvation. I ask all these things in your Precious Name, Jesus, Amen.

Mark 11:23

²³ “Truly^[a] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.