Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple, or more difficult. Difficult because to trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted. * John Holt, How Children Learn (1967)

Liam with his rocket- built from recycled household stuff.

You may have noted my unusual absence from the blog world last week. We are having some difficult days, Tom and I, as parents who care so deeply for our four children. Things are not going well for Liam in first grade and the things that my heart wants for him become all muddled when I try to really get to the bottom of what I believe he truly wants (and needs). I wonder if I don't hear my instincts so well anymore. Or maybe this mothering thing is just a lot harder than that. And Liam is a kid who doesn't voice his feelings so loudly, and maybe, sometimes, not at all. I have sobbed hours and hours over this kid's spirit, just in the last seven days- and what I think "school" is doing to him is awful but the answers aren't so simple anymore.