Hot Tub School

If a magic fairy would grant me a wish to freeze time, choose one year to circulate over and over again, I would choose this year. Not only to save a bit of my own vanity and dignity as I see Time pulling down my neck flab, but more so I could enjoy my grandson Malik in his perfect 8-year old self. Still bursting with a child’s curiosity and confidence and eagerness to inquire into this complex world, while also so physically adept that any game together— basketball, paddleball, wiffle ball, frisbee, tossing a football—is wholly satisfying to play. So mentally adept that we can lock wits in some ten different card or board games, do spontaneous math problems, work on jigsaw puzzles, play some word games (though not quite ready for Boggle) and we’re both challenged. No surprising hormones raging through his body yet, an overall calm character with sincere affection (still morning and good night hugs!). Not to mention a good sense of humor, a love for the old myths and fairy tales I tell him while we hike some five or six miles and his own capacity to just open his mouth and start his own spontaneous story which might take 20 minutes to wind up. I know all of that will change and way too soon for my taste, but for now, I am savoring every moment.

 

At breakfast, something came up about Europe and he pronounced in his own cocky way that he knew all about Europe. We quizzed him to name a single country in Europe and he chose “Japan.” “I am intelligent!” he protested, and I replied, “Yes, you are, but intelligence requires knowledge. Now you know what you need to know.

 

So some 15 minutes later, the two of us sat in the hot tub in our Palm Springs vacation Air B&B and I commenced our first lesson in my newly established Hot Tub School. Yes, I know it was double the amount of information a good teacher should introduce, but not knowing if he’s choose to re-enroll, I chose six European countries he should know about and let him know why. Like any good teacher, I had to find a way to connect it with what he already knows, while also giving him some new information. And without going into too much gruesome detail, acknowledge some of the bad alongside the good. 

 

Before sharing my lessons, here’s your homework assignment. (Yes, I know it’s Christmas Eve, so it has a flexible due date). What would you choose to say to an 8-year-old about England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Greece? (No insult intended to the other 44 countries, but to my thinking, these six bear the most direct connection to an 8-year-olds’ American experience. I originally intended to include Ireland, but that’s when he said “I need a brain break.”). Could be interesting to compare yours with mine. Ideally, everyone could chime in and we could compare results. 

 

Or you can come visit and we can discuss it in the hot tub.