Is there anything more fun than a noodle press?  Momma has the best toys.

As an update to our “right now”, Greg has hung up his Math Tutoring shoes, after we came to the stark realization Sara’s processing disorders would need to be addressed by a professional.  After much wringing of hands, I embarked on the sleepless journey of finding an Elementary Math Tutor who specializes in Learning Disorders, is comfortable working with a Gifted Kid with ADHD, and willing to work with her school’s Singapore Math Program.  And what was the chance that someone like this would have an opening?  As it so happens, she works a few blocks from the school, and had only 2 odd openings in her day that perfectly matched free periods in Sara’s day.  She is an extremely special, precious person, and I am convinced God plopped her into my life after a night I crawled out of bed while the house slept, and prayed on my knees that he’d deliver the person no one really thought existed. To quote Greg’s Grandmother, for whom Sara is named, and watches over us from heaven, “God has been so good to me”.

Sara: Mommy, I really like that girl at school today.

Mommy: What girl?

Sara: The new one!

Mommy: The one I brought?

Sara: Yes!  She was…really, really fun and nice.

Mommy: Your new math tutor.

Sara: Yes.

Mommy: I really, really like her too.  Because you know what?  When I learn something new, my brain goes vroop-vroop-vroop (motioning from the center of my forehead to mid-left, and then centric back left and right).  Yours goes vroop-vroop-vroop-vroop (motioning mid-left, way to over her right ear, back to the back left, and then to the back center, somewhat right of center). [Please don’t take these directions literally…I was only illustrating learning in motion, not trying to give her a lesson in developmental neuroanatomy. 2 of my best friends have degrees in Neurobiology, and I’m going to get schooled at lunch tomorrow.]  Ms. K. went to college to teach kids whose brains follow your exact pattern.  When SHE says math stuff, she’ll speak it in YOUR language.  It will start to make sense.

Sara: (Quietly at first, almost to herself) I knew it.  (Then to me) I KNEW IT!  (Followed by a triumphant pump of the hand, a kiss for Momma, and one little girl finishing homework almost entirely on her own, for the first time ever, albeit not math homework, but baby steps…baby steps…)

P.S. This interaction, while true, happened after a massive meltdown, a time of cool down on her bed, many minutes of Mommy trying to calm herself down, a small lecture, and a 2nd attempt at homework…lest any of you think this house is happy-happy joy-ville all the time, which I GUARANTEE you…it is not.  These last 2 weeks have nearly done me in, to be quite honest.  I have almost total laryngitis, and losing my cool over homework is like stabbing knives into my throat. But, even as I write, I hear the battle cry from my fellow Mother Warriors…if nothing else, we persevere.  Godspeed, my friends.