Wait for it, wait for it....wait....wait....

OK, so let's give this whole Mediated Learning thing a try.

I need to ask questions.

Process questions.

But what was that other part again?

Oh right, wait for a response.

Sigh.

I'm not good at waiting for a response. Actually, sometimes if my kids don't answer quick enough I think they are being disobedient. However, I learned recently that I need to give them time to think.

Well, I guess that makes sense.

Even Jeopardy has a theme song for the Final Answer.

I guess I can too.

Here we go.

We read Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken"

"Mom, what does that poem mean?"

"What do you think it means?" (inner dialogue: wait, wait,wait,wait)

"I dunno."

(Timeout: What does a parent do when they hear the famous response of "I dunno". click here to read more)

"I think you do know. Poems are a different way to express thoughts about life rather than just saying them. Some poems make you think, others entertain you. (MEANING) Let's take it line by line: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. What does that mean?"

(wait,wait,wait,wait,wait)

"There are two roads in the woods."

"Yeah. What is a yellow wood?"

(wait,wait,wait)

"Fall time."

"I think so, too. And sorry I could not travel both. What do you suppose that means?"

(wait,wait,wait)

"Well, you can't travel down two roads at once..."

(me quickly covering up shock over such an astute observation)

...so I guess he's sorry that he can't go down both."

"Astounding! Very good insight!"

We work the whole poem this way until we are at the end and my daughter tells me that the whole point of the poem is that he chose to travel down one road and not the other.

This lead to a short discussion on choices (BRIDGING) and we talked about choosing to smoke vs. not smoking, choosing to play music instead of sports and choosing to obey mom and dad over disobedience.

All of this was worth waiting for.