Usurped!

Paul has taken over my good sewing machine. He's been sewing on my old machine under very close supervision since he was about five, but since I've been working on my big quilt project for the school, he's gotten interested in his own big project, a small quilt with lots of "pockets" and works now with only minimal attention from me. The needle threader on my older machine is broken -- wonder how that happened-- so he's using my good machine. Holding my breath and remembering that a good repairman is not far away, I'm now teaching him how to thread the machine and use the needle threader, the latter far harder than the former. He listens intently and follows instructions very well, and then goes to town sewing happily away.

I guess "usurped" isn't exactly the right word for what has happened....after all, I did gently encourage him down this path, leading him to assume that he has a right to the use of a machine, including the good one if the old one isn't available. Still, I feel that something has shifted in the balance of power here. And as charmed as I am that he loves what I love, I can see that this is not necessarily to my benefit!




I'm off to beautiful Camp Letts with the 5th graders tomorrow and Friday. This is part of the "outdoor education" program that my school has for the students, a progressively more challenging outdoor experience that begins in first grade with a picnic and ends in 8th grade with a week in Disney World (well, that's one type of outdoors!) As a third grader this year Paul will spend a day at a local retreat camp on the water; the 6th graders just left today for three days and two nights at a camp in the Shenandoah Valley. This is my first time going to camp as a faculty member, and I'm planning to have fun. Of course I have to be the "adult," and it will be tough getting to sleep tomorrow night in a cabin with twenty-two 10-year old girls (!!) , but the camp is by the water, there's lots of fun activities planned, and I like the other adults that are going, so I have high hopes. Wish me well!