When the wind is knocked right out of you

At our homeschool co-op this week, King (in 6th grade) was playing on the playground between classes with many of the other students. He loves climbing all around the structure. I didn’t see it happen, but at one point, his foot slipped and he fell down right on a metal bar, hitting him just below his ribcage.

He couldn’t breathe.

The wind was completely knocked right out of him.

He panicked.

Two of the dads came and got me and stayed with us as I checked to see how he was doing. He was very shaken up and quite teary-eyed as he sat on the grass. We transferred him over to a shady location to cool down a bit and for him to just rest and catch his breath. I could see he was struggling.

After assessing how he was doing, I went to let his home economics teachers know he would need to miss his class this week.

Just a few minutes later, King changed his mind and decided he wanted to give class a try. After all, they were learning how to cook eggs in various ways this week (eggs benedict, poached eggs, sunny-side-up eggs, etc.). King loves this class. It’s his favorite (which I find is funny, because I teach one of his other classes, hahaha!).

Just about 5 minutes into class, the teacher’s assistant came to let me know King was “not doing well at all.” He was clammy, crying, and crumpled up on the cement floor outside. Even though I was a ways away, I could see she was right, he was not OK. I didn’t know what all was wrong, but he looked quite pale and miserable with his red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. I later learned that he stood up in class only to collapse onto the ground and begin sobbing. He couldn’t catch a deep enough breath without it hurting his rib area, which brought more trauma.

The teacher and the teacher’s assistant both stopped and prayed for him in that moment.

One of our homeschooling co-op mom’s is a local family doctor, so I had her check him to see if we need further assistance. What a blessing to have a doctor on campus!! She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, he likely just bruised his stomach/ribs. I asked about his not feeling well and being clammy and pale, and she said that’s very normal after a trauma incident. The adrenaline kicks in and can cause the body to go into a bit of a shock mode.

Slowly, but surely, King was able to settle down once he was laying flat with a cool breeze blowing on him. Standing or sitting up still made him feel pretty junky.

Throughout the remaining hour at co-op, we had quite a few kids and mommas ask how he was doing. Everyone was so supportive, sensitive and comforting in our time of need. King rested while laying on a couch for the remainder of co-op.

Even upon our return home, we had 5 different moms call or text me throughout the day to see how he was doing. Y’all, it truly is a beautiful thing to have friends to come alongside when we needed the extra love and support. To have such dear friends check in to make sure he was OK … it brings tears to my eyes as I type this. I am so grateful.

I know I already touched on this yesterday, but having wonderful, supportive, caring, and compassionate friends in our lives truly is one of the most wonderful treasures.

As I finish typing up this post, King is in his bed, sleeping and resting for the night. He is a bit bruised and slow going as he moves about, but he seems to be doing just fine at this point. <sigh of relief>

To God be the Glory, protection from serious harm and great friends He has given us!

“It’s so much easier that way!”

Taz is true to his “Tasmanian Devil” nickname with his high energy, loud noises and cyclone-like behaviors. In addition, his attention span is a bit … short. I might even say it’s about the size of a gnat. Very small, very short, hardly noticeable.

For Taz, math is one of those subjects he excels in understanding, but struggles to slow down in the process of actually doing it. His shortened attention span adds a different level of learning. He hurries through it as quickly as possible, often making mistakes along the way. He typically answers correctly, but he is constantly writing his 6s backwards and other numbers simply aren’t recognizable in his flurry of pencil strokes. To help ease the frustration of correcting many errors, I sit with him in the moment to help him walk (not race) through his work.

Recently, we were working through one of his very basic math problems on his practice sheet, “7-3=__”, he mumbled to himself with lightning speed as he processed aloud the answer to the problem.

“[mumble mumble] … 7 … [mumble mumble] … 10 … [mumble mumble] … 6 … [mumble mumble] … 4!”

I looked at him with utter confusion.

He let me in on a little secret of his and confidently explained, “What I do is I take 7 and I change it to a plus problem so it’s 7+3 which is 10, and then I minus 6 which equals 4!”

[me: blink blink blink]

I couldn’t help it, laughter simply bubbled right up and out as I processed what he was saying.

Taz instantly burst out, “What! What! It’s so much easier that way!”

More laughing ensued. This kid of ours, he is awesome. Truly, one-of-a-kind, awesome.

King, upon hearing what Taz did to solve this particular math problem, chuckled and honestly stated, “That’s really smart, but really confusing!”

I agree, King, I agree.  🙂