"Clever as Clever!"

Pamela proved to be "clever as clever" this week in language arts and math. I broke up her new poem, The End by A. A. Milne, into four segments. She aced every single studied dictation, including capitalization, tense, and punctuation! She almost has it memorized due to its repetitive language. While I suspect Pamela had very familiar with it because The End is one of her favorite poems, she deserves congratulations for doing such a fine job!

When I was one,
I had just begun.
When I was two,
I was nearly new.
When I was three,
I was hardly me.
When I was four,
I was not much more.
When I was five,
I was just alive.
But, now I am six,
I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now,
Forever and ever.

One thing I love about living ideas is how they spill into other parts of our life. Today Pamela mastered her first lesson in multiplying fractions (Level 5 of Making Math Meaningful). She struggled with math when she was younger and highly concrete in thinking skills. Now that she is more able to handle abstract ideas and logic, she picks up new concepts more quickly. Pamela caught onto her introduction to mutliplication of fractions quickly. I recognized her efforts by saying she was "clever as clever." That cherished phrase brightened her face.

I have been wondering about why this poem attracts Pamela so much. When she was six-and-a-half years old, we started her gluten-free, casein-free diet. She blossomed that year and taught herself to speak spontaneously, pretend play, and imitate videos. She grew more at ease in social outings too. Pamela has always been "clever as clever," but six was the end of opioid-induced fog for her.

Pamela is not one of those brilliant little professors, and she struggles with every stride. Being clever isn't everything. If you doubt me, I dare you to watch this video.