Tuesday night and Wednesday morning blended in to one, and I did not get much sleep. I woke and slowly started moving, made coffee, and woke William. We loaded the car and checked our list, twice. What we did not check was whether we had everything we needed. We turned around twice to get Beth’s clothes and letters, which needed mailing. Fortunately, it only delayed us twenty, or so, minutes.

Six hours is a long time and it gives me plenty of time to think, listen, and talk with William. For William it was time to watch a DVD, sleep, or talk to me. Yet, this time he was reading. I had purchased Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka and he cannot put it down. It is all exciting to see. I just hope I can find another book that has the same appeal and same reaction – he reads! I recommend it!Midway through our journey, at or around Grand Rapids, William asked me about the blog. He wanted to know how I come up with what I write about each day. It relates to the book, Knucklehead. I really do not have a plan, each day I sit down to write and I reflect on the day and try to remember all that took place and what was memorable and what really counted. We talked about writing and our conversation took the following path:

I reminded him Olivia was keeping a journal this summer, or at least trying to and  I asked William what he would write about if he had to write an entry about his summer and he responded – “Boy Scouts.”
I told him great but, “What about Boy Scouts?”
He responded, “Summer Camp.”
 The task of narrowing and limiting the subject went on for a few minutes until we reached swimming the mile.
I challenged him, “That’s it?”
He replied, “Yep.”
I asked him, “So, what about it?”
There was no reply and I asked him, “What were you thinking when you were swimming?
“Nothing, he responded.
“Really?” I challenged. “What do you remember?” I probed.
“The second buoy was scary.” He said.
“Really? What, about it? I questioned.
“It was scary because when I looked down I saw all these logs and stuff, and it was scary.” He replied.

It was great getting William to see that he could come up with a topic, I am going to ask him to write a ‘guest’ post soon and hope it works. Olivia will be posting soon, too. Her journal has pictures. The dialogue helped  me realize that I need to model this process in the classroom with my students; it helped me understand the inner workings of seventh grader’s brain. It was good, worthwhile.

We continued on to the cottage. One of William’s scout friends, Mark and his family are driving up to the cottage to stay with us for a few days.  It will be a great time as we share the cottage, go boating, and in general have a good time.  I drove and thought of all of the possibilities. The day was going to be a million and six times better than the day before, with meeting s that is not difficult. Five weeks left.