Alice and the not-so-Mad-Hatter share tea

Speaking of having friends for tea (my last post), I did actually have a tea party "Get to know you" meeting.  A student's mother suggested it since she knew her daughter would run from any meeting about school, but would skip to a tea party. I smiled at the brilliant idea and felt the seeds of how to create a more relaxed first session plant themselves in my imagination. How would I search for clues in this new setting?  I saw myself  a bit like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland bringing up my easy-to-answer though random questions during a chit-chat about the weather, American Girl dolls, and Disney on Ice.

I practiced in my head..."What a beautiful snowy day. What season do you like?" No, that wouldn't work. Maybe, "...American Girl dolls are so cool, do you like to read the books or just look at the catalogs?"  Now that sounded just plain weird.

I decided to let the process lead us and look for the signs of learning struggles within our conversation. Soon I found hints of learning stresses sprinkled within the crumbs of oatmeal-butterscotch cookies and reflecting off the pitcher of lemonade. Floating in and out of ideas and stories, we found our way to talking about school work, learning, and the frustrations in reading and math. Moments later we were out of our chairs doing a few activities, glad to be working off the chocolate covered pretzels and gingersnaps.  Amongst paper, crayons, and multi-colored plastic gems, we laid a path to lighten her load while learning.  Feeling refreshed, we said our goodbyes and a few hours later I received a phone call which was the best gift of my afternoon.  An excited mother repeated that on their way home her smiling daughter had said  "Mommy, I think I'm going to start liking school now." Now that's my cup of tea.