Thursday, June 9, 2011

Luv U See

Two weeks ago, I was in North Carolina selling BiblioPlan for Families, our homeschool history/literature curriculum.  Our little company was among the many vendors peddling wares at a homeschoolers' convention. Since we homeschool our three boys, I also use these conventions as opportunity to find whatever curriculum I need for the coming school year.

Ben and Elijah's needs are simple now. Ben has moved on to the local community college, and Elijah uses hand-me-down books from Ben's previous courses.  Elijah takes science and English composition at our homeschool co-op, studies Spanish and math at home, and of course uses BiblioPlan for history. In his spare time, he pursues his new goal of launching a satellite.

Aaron is another story.




Even though he's made a lot of progress since the year he spent sitting silently in a shed filled with moaning boys, he still needs a lot of help to get ready for kindergarten. So I have been looking and listening to find helpful curriculum that can meet his needs. 



After looking around at the convention a bit, I decided to check out the Math U See booth. Their booth is MUCH bigger than ours. They had several cash registers and lots of representatives wearing matching blue shirts. They definitely made us look like small potatoes. I walked up to a man who was selling Primer books and struck up a conversation. We talked for 20 minutes.  I shared Aaron's story with him and described Aaron's special needs.  We looked at the curriculum in light of these needs. I decided that I liked Math U See; but I had to go, so I left the booth without buying anything. We were busy at our booth, and the day was ending when I finally found time to run back to Math U See to buy the Primer materials for our little guy.
When I got there, I let my friend know that I wanted the primer books for Aaron.  He bagged up the materials and carried them to the cash register. And then, without preamble, in an unbelievable act of love and kindness, he took out his personal credit card and paid for Aaron's books. 



I was stunned.  It was all I could do to keep from dissolving into tears right there on the convention floor.  Love in action.  The Kindness of Strangers.  Aaron's story touching hearts and lives in a way that continually astounds us. Nearly everyone seems moved to give him something. I could barely mumble my heartfelt thanks as I took the books and walked away, shaking and crying. 



So many people have been so generous to him over these last few weeks.  It is humbling, because we simply can't provide all of these things. Without the help of generous strangers, Aaron wouldn't have nearly as much as he does.



We have another convention this weekend, this time in Richmond. This one's called HEAV, Home Educators' Association of Virginia (I think). I plan on visiting the Math U See booth again, and if our benefactor is there, since Rob is bringing the boys on Saturday, he'll get a chance to meet the little guy whom he generously blessed a couple of weeks ago. 



*****
To the many people who donated to Ian, Thank You! We have reached our goal of 90 puzzle pieces and raised $1,000.00 for Ian. I'm quite sure, however, that the Stewarts wouldn't reject any extra donations you might want to make. They're still well short of their goal.

Please continue to pray for Jonah's parents, Tom and Mary. They are waiting and hoping that their paperwork will arrive in time.  Please pray Jonah home.

And please keep praying for the Goodmans and Sweet Caroline.  They were not submitted this morning.  So they wait another week on pins and needles.

13 comments:

  1. awww I LOVE Math-U-See!!!! We have used it for two years.

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  2. Math U See is a curriculum I have heard a LOT of good about! I hope you will let us know how Aaron does with it as of course I'm listening now for Katya too. ;-)

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  3. We started using Math-U-See this years for our 7 and 4yr old. Love, love, love it! Wonderful hands-on practical approach! What a special person to share that with Aaron! Blessings abound!!!

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  4. Julia, We met on the last day of the NC Convention- I came to your booth specifically to meet you & tell you I had been praying for Aaron and the others you post about- especially Masha, Eddie & Jonah.

    Anyway- Have you looked at a Mini LUK for Aaron? Timberdoodle sells them. I am assuming writing is somewhat of a problem for Aaron but the mini LUK uses medium sized tiles (guessing here, but maybe 1.5"x1.5" size). They have lots of books to go with it- math, spatial reasoning, seasons, critical thinking, etc. They are self correcting- if they got all the answers right, when you close the clear case and flip it over, there will be a pattern on the back. My 6yo loves his and my 3yo loves her Bambino LUK. I was thinking Aaron might enjoy it & it might be something that he could manipulate easily.

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  5. What a wonderful story of compassion and kindness. Whenever people tell me there is no good left in this world I refer them to the blogs I read daily that remind me that God is alive and using his people to enrich the lives of others everyday. You don't have to look hard to find a miracle. You just have to take a moment to stop and look. Thanks for sharing your sweet boy with us to remind us how good God really is.

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  6. Oh- but you provide the most important thing of all- unconditional- absolute- love.

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  7. This just made me cry like a baby! How amazing is that? God always provides!

    Brooke Annessa
    www.theannessafamily.blogspot.com

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  8. How thoughtful of them to bless Aaron with a great math program. We've used it all the way up to trigonometry. All our kids have loved it. Oh boy right now it's hard to think about three six year olds and two other grades. Thank goodness for God's grace on a daily basis, especially in the classroom.
    No court today :( paperwork was delayed. Now we wait until next Tuesday.

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  9. We use Math U See, too! What an awesome story of grace and love. I will be at HEAV and will come by your booth today and hope to see Aaron tomorrow!

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  10. I LOVED Math-U-See,and my siblings still use it. :) That is such a cool story. :)

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  11. please let us know what his reactions were when aaron meets the math u see booth!!

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Loving words from kind people make our hearts glad!