The Phone Call

Her nose was still red and running. Several times she stopped what she was doing to reach for a tissue.

My granddaughter called last night to continue our discussion on higher mathematics. This time I worked on her skills of multiplication, as she tried to determine how many quarters it took to make a dollar. After several minutes with this, and similar problems, ending with my favorite (a big stomach ache), she excused herself to ready for bed.

A little while later, she called again. Now she was going to read a bedtime story to me. With but a little assistance from her mommy, she went from first page to last, reciting a tale of taking a favorite book out of the library and being reluctant to return it to pass it on to the next child eagerly awaiting their turn.

It is great fun for me to be a first grader, trying to decipher the complexities of learning. Each day its own struggle, and its own reward. The best part of it: the process that she now seems to so clearly enjoy.

I hope her enthusiasm for knowledge, for school, continues in the days and years to come. And more than anything else I hope my phone continues to ring.