same old

today we had to leave early for art class, plus chana was grouchy. she had just spent a frustrating while on her art, and she wanted to relax. i decided we would do just one pasuk today. i was wondering if it would have been better to just skip it altogether. she hadn't eaten breakfast, either. sometimes i wonder why i try to do chumash like that, but i feel that if i waited for ideal conditions i'd be waiting for godot.

interestingly, as far as parenting goes, i wanted to be harsher to her (and indeed, when her tone hit a certain level i warned her). but i was kind and told her that i'd make her food, and this gesture of love calmed her down. i was pondering the irony that harshness breeds more stubborn behavior and love breeds bending, and the line between that and necessary discipline, but back to chumash.

i told her the word arur. she did decently with the suffixes though she complained greatly. the yud at the end of yemei--yesterday she remembered that was ...s of, but today she didn't (because she was cross). and she didn't remember the end of chayas (chayat) was 'of.' i imagine if it keeps coming up she will eventually.

i'd love to do another pasuk but shabbos is coming and the next pasuk has 4 new words and one that she's seen a couple of times but won't remember. 5 unfamiliar words is a lot. we'll probably have to do that slowly. the pasuk after that has 3 unfamiliar words.

it's a holiday weekend, so maybe we'll do one on sunday and one on monday. we'll see.