School has started. Homework is being assigned. Spelling words are being memorized. Lunches are being packed. The schedule is getting filled to the brim. The vacations we took this summer feel like a dream. Did they really happen? Bummer -- It's only September!
Often, the worst part of the start of school for moms, dads and caregivers is the loss of control. Evenings and weekends are no longer leisurely and relaxed. The are crammed with helping with word problems, correcting punctuation, folding laundry, calming a frazzled child's nerves and making sure everyone gets into bed at a semi-decent hour. It's a feeling of being caught in a web of someone else's making.
In the Pacific Northwest, fall is spider time. Each morning brings a new artistry of spider web magic in corners of porches, alcoves of doors, across walking paths and hidden in bushes. The most beautiful webs are the ones that have survived a slight morning mist or rainstorm and are covered with little diamond shaped water drops illuminated by the morning sun.
To a spider, the web is a beautiful work of order and precision. It goes between two to four points. Then weaves marvelously around in little squares or rectangles until a bigger web is completed that will catch some nourishment, some delicious protein for dinner. If you're the spider's dinner == if you're caught in the web -- it's yucky. We all know the feeling. It's sticky. It's claustrophobic. We try to pull our legs out as fast as we can.
Imagine, for a moment, the power of weaving your own web. You have a family you love. You want the best for them. Schooling -- sports -- good dinners. You also want family time. Quiet moments together just laughing. Unscheduled times where the games come out. Gentle times where you color together or finish a couple of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. So -- weave a web for your family. Mark off a couple of squares in your calendar for totally free time. It doesn't have to be long. 15 minutes is one little spider web square. It's enough time for one game of King's in the Corner. Yet, taking that 15 minutes makes you the Web Weaver for your family.
Get out the Play dough and practice making letters with your toddler. It's one of the activities in "What Your Children Need to Learn to Read" by Michelle Vallene. Your child will have fun and you will feel more relaxed when it's over. Just for fun, get out a box of Raisin Bran and see if you and your child can actually count how many raisins are in the box. It doesn't matter if you get the correct number. It matters that you weave the web of some fun, silly, unscheduled time with your family.
Be a web weaver today. Make it a beautiful web for your family. Go heavy on the special web squares of laughter, hugs and tickling. These are the things that make every family web really strong! Happy weaving!!
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