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The mother of a friend of the Girl approached me on Sunday at church to ask about setting up a playdate between her daughter and the Girl. This isn't a new thing; the girls have done the birthday party back and forth, a couple of playdates and have taken sewing classes from the rec. center together for years. What caused me to take notice was a remark from the mom about how hard it was for her quite intelligent daughter to make friends at school, because the girls were so clique-y there. Upon hearing that, my mind immediately began the superior dance, thinking "and everyone worries about homeschoolers and their supposed (sic) "lack of socialization."

But school isn't the sole province of cliques and cattiness. When I started the medieval history group last year, there was an instance where the girls started talking badly about another girl they knew from gym class. I had been preparing a snack for them, but I stopped what I was doing, came in from the kitchen and went from kindly homeschool-mom-teacher person to avenging goddess, saying, "We don't talk badly about people here. How would you feel if other girls were talking this way about you?" It quenched the behavior, but it wasn't the way I would have preferred to handle the incident; I probably would have been able to facilitate some conversation on the matter had I not flashed back to my 5th grade self when I heard the tone of voice the girls were using while criticizing this other girl. Fortunately, a lovely twist of fate happened that very afternoon. When talking to one of the mothers about the incident, she told me that she knew the mother of the dissed girl, who had asked her if it were possible to join the class. The mother and I decided that this would be a fine thing, and it was. The girls got to know each other and have all become good friends and companions, learning to appreciate the strengths and differences of each other.

So Abby over at Stretchy Pants tagged me with the following meme:

* Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
* Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
* Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
* Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

After some surly whining (can one be surly and whiny at the same time?) I came up with...Grace. Of course it's because it's something that I am trying to learn myself---"you teach best what you most need to learn," says Richard Bach, and it seems to hold true for me.

Here's another fear-mongering item in the war on childhood I found in an AP article from the little weekly paper dropped on my doorstep: Beware: Snow and Germs Do Mix It says that snow, even the pristine stuff, contains the Pseudomonas syringae bacteria. It does go on to contradict the freak out implied in the title, saying that the bacteria is very common, that the acid in our digestive systems are a great defense and that those with cystic fibrosis or small formula-fed babies are truly at risk for infection.

No, not that way, you buncha pervs. It would have been more in the "is this the Rapture?" vein. You see, at around 7:00PM, (EST) my oldest, smarter-than-me-in-several-ways brother conceded that I "was right about Bush." (our supposed commander-in-chief, just in case any lingering double entendre remains) And then later, my oldest sister admitted that chiropractic care had really improved the behavior of her grandson. This may seem like no big deal to you, but in true Paul Harvey fashion, here's the rest of the story:

That green lump is the girl playing in the 12-15 inches of snow that we already have, (it's 10:30); and it's forecasted to fall for the rest of the day. Uncle Scooter must be thinking of us and his incipient trip home.