Monday, November 05, 2007

Shock and Awe people!

I was about to take Mackenzie to a 4-H gardening project and all I could think about was how fast she was probably going to change her mind once we got there. She is not one to like any type of work and she isn't shy about letting you know.

Well, we got to the spot where the garden was supposed to be and found a piece of land that was just being tilled and full of weeds. I looked at Mackenzie as she surveyed the land and waited. She said nothing. The ladies that were there introduced themselves, and so did the six other kids and Mackenzie was directed to find a shovel and start digging out weeds. I stood there in amazement as she picked up the shovel and began her work. I followed with my own shovel and after a while Mackenzie says, "I didn't think when we got here that we were going to be starting from scratch." I agreed as I thought we would be going to a garden that was already set up and the kids would just be planting some things. We continued to work. About two hours later, as Mackenzie was taking her turn at the wheelbarrow, she said, "You know, I could totally see me doing this for a living. This is fun."

I almost fell over in shock. This child who avoids work of any kind just said she was loving digging out weeds and planting trees! I was so proud of her. She worked her butt of for 4 and a half hours straight and was learning along the way. And she never complained the whole time. And in the end, it was her and two other girls that stayed to finish the job. AWESOME!!!

It was one of those proud mom moments. And as we were the only home schoolers working on a project at a local school that only the school kids were going to get to use in the end, I kind of felt like we were helping to bridge a bit of a gap or at least making some kind of progress in the area of home schoolers vs. public education or something like that. It was an awesome learning experience for all and I can't wait to do more.

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