Gi Suilon

Gi Suilon is Elvish for I greet thee (informal). Last week, as a result of my two day conference, we started each school day with what I call Gi Suilon time.

But what about the conference you say? It was not as productive as I had hoped. I made some progress in organizing next year, wrapping up details of previous weeks, looking ahead to the finishing of this year, but it all felt scattered. As it turns out I was getting sick. Friday afternoon I laid down for a nap, and woke up coughing. I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. It turned into a bronchial thing that only Benadryl, Ibuprofen, and sleep could cure. Sadly, I was unable to travel a real Rivendell, where Elrond would have had me better in a day. I was down for a week. The elephant is gone, and I'm still working on my stamina. If the Gi Suilon time is the only thing to come out of my little parent-teacher conference, however, it's all good.

Historically Z and I have started school with read-aloud time. We're not morning people and it gives us time to acclimate to each other. We've had brief conversation before starting, but nothing scheduled or organized. Gi Suilon time is open-ended. Last week, due to my illness, it was mostly about me giving Z his assignments for the day. This week we've had good discussions. One day we just went through some of the goofy things that have been posted on facebook recently. We've talked about a current event, today we are reading an article in an educational magazine. I hope to keep using the "winging it" approach and find something new each day to discuss. How long do we discuss? Generally about fifteen to twenty minutes.

I know many of these things we talk to our children about already. Why bring these casual commentaries to the classroom? For one, I can keep the focus on school, I can pull something educational out of the topic at hand. Plus it is a great to peer inside the inner workings of Z's mind, always an interesting place.  

We're into our third term of school for the year. I can see the end of eighth grade in sight, but we have a lot yet to discover, a lot yet to learn, and hopefully some fun along the way.