My boy, the "wild thing"

My boy (age 20, not so much a boy, I know ) takes after his dad. He does not enjoy reading. My husband only reads things like the newspaper or woodworking magazines or trade magazines. Basically things that he has to read to learn about something. Jon does not even read that much, which worries me. I hope that as he gets older and more mature he'll realize that reading is necessary and, of course, I would hope that he would learn to enjoy it. But then, I know he's too much like his dad. I have to jump in here and mention that they are both very smart and very good at what they do. Both of them have jobs that require them to use their brains. I think people don't give enough credit to others who choose to work at physical jobs. They are not all brawn with no brains. Okay, off my soapbox now! One thing that Jon did enjoy was being read to. I would read to him before he went to sleep and he always seemed to enjoy that. There came a time when I thought he was too old for it and should be reading on his own. I realize that was a mistake on my part as he just plain stopped reading. There was this one very exciting year in 6th grade that he had an awesome teacher. She had actually, several years earlier, been a bank executive and my boss at the bank I worked at. I never really liked her as she talked down to us and treated us like no-brainers (that's actually what she referred to our jobs in bank records as). After this bank ceased to exist she made the choice to get her teaching degree. Terrible boss but excellent teacher. I was worried at the beginning of the year, but was quickly put at ease. I would rank her up there with one of the best teachers that either of my kids experienced. Anyhow, she loved to read and somehow that struck my son. Never mind that I love to read! He read book after book that year! I was in my glory, looking for new and interesting books for him to read! He must have impressed this teacher because she nominated him for 110% student that year. A handful of students are nominated and honored at a lunch and have thier photo on a prominent bulletin board for the remainder of the year. I was able to read her letter of nomination. Like I said before, excellent teacher. She was able to teach my son to enjoy school and enjoy reading, something he hadn't done since maybe second grade and something he didn't really do again, except when he discovered his love of metal machining in his senior year (which doesn't mean he enjoyed his half day of classes that year!). I had hoped that the love of reading would carry on, but, no, he is a doer and I'm still trying to learn to accept that. We are having a terrible time getting him to continue taking college courses. He works full-time and is learning and loves it. He's very good at it too, actually. Won a national competition in his field two years ago, if I may be a proud mom for a moment! That's the part of him that loves to learn by doing, not by sitting in a classroom. We really think that if he had gone off to college, like we (and he) had originally planned that he would have ended up dropping out. It would have been too much. So, we can only hope that we can continue to encourage him to take a class or two at a time until he either earns a degree or realizes that the degree will benefit him in the long run. Why am I thinking about my boy and reading this Saturday morning? One of Jon's favorite books that I read to him (nearly every night for a very long time!) was "Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. I learned that they are making it into a movie. Without young children or grandchildren (yet) I have no excuse to go see this. I wonder if my boy would want to...oh, but I know he would never admit it. http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/buzz-log-wild-things.html

a beginning

Well, we all have to start somewhere... It's funny, I started setting this up last fall and forgot. I found out why I forgot. I couldn't come up with a name for my blogspot. Strange reason, I know. So, this is my first time blogging, unless you want to count myspace. I want to write. I've always wanted to write and life just kept getting in the way. I married at 18, had my daughter at 19 and divorced at 21. Then I had to start over again. Wasn't easy. I married my soulmate, the love of my life just before I turned 25 and had my son at 28. That has been my priority since. I have been actively involved in what my kids were involved in: scouts, sports, band while helping my husband run our business. Why now? My kids have grown up - 20 and 28. Our business has slowed, hopefully not too slow! I have some time on my hands that I never had before. So, now I write. A journal of sorts, I guess. I'll write what's on my mind. I'll record memories. I'll write about my interests. I'll write about my family. If you happen to come across my blog, I hope you find it interesting, hopefully entertaining at times. Who knows. I'll just write what's on my mind...