Leading

It's been a little hard to keep up with the blog now that it's summer. But we've been doing our grayschooling every day, and it's going well. Today the Lark did an amazing job leading us through the Lion Hunt story. It's a rhythmic call-and-response story. The leader says a line and then "everyone" repeats it. It involves hand-motions and sound effects. It moves slowly forward as we hunt the lion and then we go back through all the events in reverse as we run away from the lion. And the Lark led the way through the whole thing with just a few hints and reminders. And even when he faltered a bit, he never lost his confidence or became upset. I think this shows how much better he learns when there is no pressure. We did this story many times with me in the lead. He just had to repeat what I said. Finally, he decided to try leading when he was ready. I never really asked him to. By contrast, he is still struggling with our little frog story, which is shorter and simpler. But with the frog story I started making demands on him (and his memory) right away. I think that when I place this kind of pressure on him--no matter how easy I make the task--his capacity to take things in is diminished.