Noah

Rites of Passage and Pride

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I have been drafting this post in my head for about a week now.  I have just been so busy that every time I sit down to write at my computer, work keeps nagging me.  So. Much. WORK.  But I am forcing myself to write it now or I will forget and the moment will be lost…

Day In The Woods:

I have written about the school we have chose for our kids a lot (sorry, not going to link to all past posts–but will to the school).  We love the school and everything about their philosophy and mission is something we want for our kids.  There are several Rites of Passage moments at their school and Noah just participated in it–Kindergarten Day in the Woods.  It is a full-day of hiking, where the kids carry their own packs–with their lunch, water, bug catching/holding things, etc., and they hike approximately 3 miles.  It is totally a big deal.  We were lucky that Bill go to go have this experience with Noah and it was quite a father-son bonding day. His final thought in his field journal was that he wanted to remember how happy he was that his dad came—melt my heart.

The kids come back a little more confident and closer.  The class designed t-shirts (every kids gets one) and on the back you can maybe see that there is a self-portrait of each kid in the class–if you click on the picture below you can see the back of the shirt better).

The kids hike and they stop and write in their field journal–they draw pictures of what they saw and then they write their thoughts or what they hear.  The big winner in the field journals was the snake that they saw and one of the dads picked up for the kids to really get a good look at it.

They built fairy houses and tried to catch tadpoles, bugs and little minnows from the pond.  They walked together.  They experienced this all together.  Many of them (about 16) have been in school together for 3 years and you can see the bonds forming and deepening.  You can see their attention to the world around them expand.  You can see them grow as people with each step they take. You can see their independence develop as they walk a little further down the trail.

 

Piano:

Noah has been playing piano for about 18 months now.  He loves it.  Okay, honestly…he loves it most days.  He is also pretty good at it.  He seems to have an ear for music and will sometimes just sit down and play random notes, chords (really what the hell do I know–but it sounds good when he does it).  He takes lessons at school—which is really nice as it’s one less activity we have to run around to.  His piano teacher is really good and she encouraged us to sign Noah up to participate in a music festival–through the National Federation of Music Clubs.  I told Noah what is was–memorize and play from memory (no music), two pieces in a room with a judge.   He thought that sounded cool.  So he said yes.  So we worked for 2 months on his two pieces of music.  Alright, he worked for 2 months on his two pieces–really all I did (or could do) was encourage him to practice and to clap for him when he was done.  I can’t read music.

He practiced nearly every day–“because if I practice for 100 minutes a week, I get a GREEN STAR STICKER.” Wow, okay.  That piano teacher is on to something.  I need to get some green star stickers.  He knew the songs.  When he practice at home he would still miss a note and start over every now and again.  So, I was pretty sure he would do good at the festival, but I made sure he knew it was okay if he missed a note and that he should just keep going.

Well, Holy Shitballs, the kid, my son, did PERFECT.  He still could have played a little “better”but he was PERFECT.  Didn’t miss a note.  He was so proud of himself.  Before he left for the festival–he told me he was going to be better than we thought he could do…I don’t know if that should make me sad or happy.  But I had told him to just try his best.

It was great that he did perfect–but what I like the best was how proud he was of himself.   There is nothing better than seeing your child proud of what they did.  He can own his success and know that he did it.   It ‘s so great.

A Life Lesson

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

One of the things I love most about Noah’s school is the philosophy of growth, independence and that kids can do anything. The kids school has a great climbing wall and all the kids learn the basics in kindergarten and beyond and then in 6th grade they learn to belay. It’s a great thing-to learn that you have to do the work, but you aren’t alone. It also teaches them responsibility for others.

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72-Months-Old

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

Dear Noah,

You turned six this past weekend.  Six.  SIX.  It seems like such a big number.  How is it possible that you already SIX?  It still seems like just yesterday that your dad and I were in Ethiopia simply hoping that you would survive.  That we would be able to love you for life.  How far you have come from that sick little boy we clung to for dear life.  Now look at you.

You have changed so much in the last 365 days. And much of what I wrote last year  remains the same.  Your birthday is bitter sweet for me.  I am so lucky to get to be your mom, but I feel so sad for your Ethiopian Mom who doesn’t get the joy of watching you grow every day.  To see you change each year.   Your birthday is a celebration not only of life, but also of sacrifice and loss.

Where to start…your personality has become very clear.  I think it must be about this time that many of us resign ourselves to our kids personality traits and stop trying to write it off as age-related.  You are sensitive and you don’t like to be teased.  You take everything personal.  It is hard for me, as I come from a family where we tease each other relentlessly.  I am trying to explain this to you and attempting to teach you how to tease back–I am failing miserably, but will keep trying.

You still struggle with expressing your feelings.  You are quick to respond “fine, I’m never playing with you again.”  Your biggest insult is calling someone (usually me) a “meanie” and you hit a little too often.  Never with the malicious intent of hurting someone–but to show the person how they have hurt you.  We are trying to teach you how to ignore your little sister (to no avail) and how to get upset without saying something that might hurt someone else.  Sometimes is frustrates me, because I hate to see you hurt someone.  You feel bad after you hurt someone–but you are working through the idea of “justice.”  I am hoping that you learn to control your feelings more as you get older.  I often forget that you are still young and making sense of your world.

You have become quite that class clown–this is a bit of a surprise.  But you have learned that you can make people laugh and you really like that.  You are also super social, so being quiet when you are with your friends is hard and I often here “well so and so talked to me.” and how it would be rude not to answer.  Way to throw my words back at me.

You have started to find your sports niche.  You have started judo/tae kwon do and you really love it.  You have your yellow belt already and are anxiously awaiting testing for your orange belt.  You have a knack for the forms and could be a little more aggressive when it come to “fighting” but you awesome.  You have also developed a love for gymnastics (I know your dad wishes it was soccer) but it has been really good for your strength and for your confidence.  But you are most excited about starting baseball (really it’s t-ball) but you are counting down the days until practices start this week.

You still occupy yourself most of the time with your legos–and it is all Ninjago all the time with you these days.  Your DS collects more dust that hours played and that is okay by me.  I have figured that if you get to do what you want, you tend to chose good things to do.  You like video games, but not to the point where I need to institute a time limit.  This makes me happy.

You have learned to whistle (and you are an awesome whistler), read music (???–I’m beyond impressed), tie your shoes, and read.  You can do the splits, pull yourself up on the rings and can almost do one pull-up.  So many things come easy to you that you get really frustrated when something doesn’t.  But you work hard.  You practiced whistling and trying to whistle everyday for about 6 weeks until you had it mastered.  When you want something, you are relentless and willing to work hard.

You do everything 100% and you expect an immediate return.  But you are learning that thing take time.  You are a great friend and everyone in your class seeks you out as a playmate.  You are balancing your popularity with what you want to do and who you might like to play with.

You are a great brother to you sister and you are an amazing and loving son.  You are exploring your world and your sense of adventure is clear.  You’ll try nearly anything.  I am so blessed to be your mom.  I couldn’t ask for a better son.  Keep growing and exploring.

Happy Birthday Noah!

I love you,

Momma

His First Taste Of Awesome

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 3 Comments

Noah has wanted to learn to read for a long time, but was just not ready.  I subscribe to the idea that when kids are ready, they will do things.  I try very hard not to push them.  We make lots of things available and when they want to write the alphabet they will. When they want to paint they do, etc.  I know enough to know that you can’t (and maybe shouldn’t) rush development.  Rushing one area of development can leave another area bypassed.  And while for my own “look at my kid” desires, I have let reading go.  We have level 1 readers that he sometimes would pick up and we would sound out words, etc.  But it was always more frustrating for him than anything.  Because anyone who knows my son, knows that he likes to succeed and be good at things.  Failing at something or not being able to do something makes him extremely frustrated (that is putting it mildly–often he can go bat shit crazy).

Anyway.  Our bedtime routine is pretty simple–brush teeth and read.  I usually read a chapter from a Magic Treehouse book to Noah and then book to Zoë.  Sometimes we flip and I read to Zoë first.  But it’s pretty simple.  Well last night, Noah had to move some of those goofy decal things that stick on the wall but you can move them from place to place, etc.  So, I read to Zoë.  Noah asked if he could get one of his “easy” books to look at while I read Princess Winter Wishes or some nonsense like that to Zoë.  I said sure.

So, I finished reading to Zoë and then Noah asked if he could practice reading tonight instead of listening to me read.  I said absolutely.  He is learning words in school and they have a word wall and he is starting to recognize words and read them when he sees them.  So, he started reading the book.  And we talked about the words and I help with sounding some of them out.  But he was able to read a good portion of the book without my help.  My heart swelled.  But that wasn’t the best part.

When Noah finished, he laid backwards on the bottom bunk, eyes wide and said “I am so proud.”

We then read it 3 more times and had to try a few other books as well.

“Reading is AWSOME Mom.”

Yes reading is awesome little man.  He had to read the book to his dad this morning–twice and to his sister once.

He still has along way to go before he is a reader–but he is well on his way and is ready.

Change

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Noah is growing so fast. He can put together Legos for 7-14-year-olds with very little assistance aside from finding the elusive piece. He is very very impressed by this. He has all of a sudden stopped the daily tantrums and when a tantrum does occur it is usually because he feels like he failed at something. He has higher expectations for himself than I would ever dream of having.

He is such a great and cool kid.

It was time to do his hair last night-which was a matted up hot mess. He put it off and off and off and finally said NO.

“Really? You can let me do it or we shave it.” My usual threat.

“Let’s shave it.”

What the hell did he just say? Shave of the inches of absolutely beautiful curls. His hair goes past his shoulders when wet and pulled straight.

I asked 3 more times and he was decided. So, we cut. And cut. And mohawked.

He LOVES it. I know it will grow back.