I have a dream

Not as lofty or world changing as that of Martin Luther King-- but I do have a dream or two. One is that my children will grow up to be contributing members of society. That they will improve our world and leave it a better place for having participated. That they will grow old with few regrets and leave a wake of happy, productive memories. That when they are thought of it is with warmth and honor to have known them.

In honor of Martin Luther King and the historic inauguration of our 44th President tomorrow, today we concentrated on that message and the realization of the dream. When the kids have a day off I like to have Education Hour. Doesn't happen every day off, but most. They have to do something educational. It's usually pretty open to kid interpretation as to what is educational, but today I gave them an assignment. We talked about MLK and President Obama. Then I gave them instructions to come up with a dream to better the world and how they would achieve it.. a step or 50 steps or a picture of how it happens.

May I present the dreams of three kids, January, 19, 2009:

Noah, almost 4: " I dream that this world would be better if we all had puppies because everyone would have a puppy and everyone would care and all the puppies would have a home." Then he painted the picture above of five puppies surrounded by puppy footprints .


Rebekah, 12:
"I have a dream, that the world may see, all animals should live to be happy, loved, and free. Free from abuse and mistreat. Free from hunger and thirst. I have a dream, that we can get to if we all work hard, be kind to all living creatures that our Lord put us on this planet to care for. From Adam and Eve, to nights and shining armor, to this very day. That in all eternity, no animals will be harmed or mistreated. That all will be loving to the creatures of this earth. That no animal will be left to suffer, and feel alone. That no animal shall EVER be left behind. My dream for the animals."


Like most kids,my children are drawn to and kind to animals, although we have no pets.Not even a goldfish. They began a campaign for a dog months ago and have made little headway. This does not deter them but as you can see, they take every opportunity to fight a battle .Hotel for Dogs is, right now, the greatest movie we have never seen. My kids talk about it A LOT. I will take Noah on his birthday next week to see it. I will tell you why they fixate on this movie. You will realize that I am not some Super Mom who has education hour everyday and every moment is a learning experience.Simply this: They have been watching too much TV. Simple as that. Victims of advertising, nothing more.

Luke, 10: "I have a dream. To make the world a better place if I were a baseball player getting 10000 million dollars. I would have to practice baseball everyday. It would make our world a better place because I would make people happy."

He drew a lame picture of himself practicing baseball. He even laughed at the lameness of it: a stick figure that would have had his art teacher sending him back to his table to redo it. Luke was in education hour today to fulfill my dream of having children who listen to me and do what I ask. Nothing more. It was not his most shining education moment but I appreciate him for having given it some effort. He listened to what I said, gave just enough effort so that I could tell that he took me seriously, participated as a member of the family, and had my wishes at heart.

I know that not all days will steps toward a realized dream, or be Top 10 days, even my basic math skills can come to that conclusion. This was not a Luke Top 10 effort.Later today he might be spectacular. But I know that some days this is what I give him, so I really can't fault him for doing as I have demonstrated. Sometimes the most we can say is that we were present in the moment. The secret to counting the day as a success is to be hopeful that he and I will do better tomorrow. We do that and it doesn't matter where on the list the day falls.