It occurred to me that if I did school work with her, too, it might help keep Avril occupied. It has be age-appropriate school work, of course.

So, while Norah did her handwriting pages this morning, I helped Avril hold her marker correctly, hold her paper with the other hand and draw counterclockwise circles.

It's an old trick I learned from The Well Trained Mind. I get to call it an "old trick" now because I used it with Norah years ago when she was Avril's age and it worked. Norah never really did struggle to hold her pencil correctly.

On a separate note, it's sobering to look at the photo above and consider the fact that I am at a point in my homeschooling journey where I am now repeating things I did years ago with another one of my kids. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was wrapping Norah's chubby little fingers around her pencil and "doing swirls."

What a privilege to do it all again! What a benefit the years that have gone before have already been to me as I go forward!