Evidently, Gavin feels he has much wisdom to impart to his younger brother and the sooner he gets started, the better. He holds strong and fast to my philosophy of not wasting any time.
Therefore, what better time than the 1/2 hour car ride home from church yesterday to start teaching his 3 year old brother how to draw his letters - properly, mind you. They each have a mini Magnadoodle in the back seat and were using those for this particular activity (for those of you not familiar with all the new gadgets children have these days, this is comparable to the old write-n-wipes we used to have back in the day).
Chuck & I were enjoying a nice little conversation, when suddenly we realized we hadn't been interupted in the past 3 minutes and quickly turned around to make sure everyone was still breathing. We hardly ever have the luxury of voicing one complete thought out loud to each other before we hear "Mommy....." or some sort of yelling/crying/screaming....take your pick. Anyways, when we turned around to check on them you can imagine our surprise when we didn't see anyone in a head lock with the other's hand around their mouth. They were actually participating in a normal activity. "What has gotten into these children?" we questioned under our breath.
As we sat quietly listening to their precious conversation, we decided we didn't need to talk. The moment was more enjoyable by listening to them talk. Gavin was explaining in great detail how to draw each and every letter and making sure Bennett did it the exact way he instructed. He would even say "No, Bennett, I said, two straight lines". Here's an example of what we witnessed:
Gavin: Okay Bennett, now I'm going to teach you to draw a F. First draw one line down.
Bennett: Like dis? Vuh-vuh (brother)?
Gavin: No. From the top all the way to the bottom.
Bennett: Oh
Gavin: Next, draw a small line at the top that goes all the way to the side.
Bennett: Oh
Gavin: Then, draw another small line right under that. Good job Bennett. Now we'll do G
Then Bennett would beam with pride at the encouragement just lavished upon him.
It was a beautiful sight to behold (and listen to). I keep telling Gavin that he's going to end up being the one to teach Bennett to read because Bennett looks up to him so much and just copies him to no end and desparately desires his brother's approval and praise (much like Gavin does to us). I love moments like these! It shows me what a difference we can make in someone's life if we choose kindness over selfishness. They end up teaching me something everday.
