Sandra Dodd

The writing below is by my daughter, Holly Dodd, 18, from her blog.
She's never been to school and except for asking questions and
learning from what she saw, hasn't had any lessons in writing or
grammar or spelling. She's just lived her life in a rich environment
with many people who regarded her as whole and real and who spoke to
her as a person.

The people named are Linnea, who is six and is Bea Mantovani's
daughter, and Adam Daniel, six and is Julie Daniel's daughter (Holly
stayed with them for six weeks last winter).

Thursday, April 22, 2010
Maybe they should be called "page markers"
I have a bookmark that I made of turquoise and purple paper and box
tape.

Linnea asked me what it was, I said it's a bookmark. She asked where I
got it, I said I made it. She asked where I made it, I said upstairs
in the kitchen. She asked if she could open it (double sided), I said
she could not. She asked why she couldn't- There were too many answers
to give! I think I could have been in a 'put it back, please don't
mess with my things' mood, but guess what, I'm not! I said that it's
just what it is, it doesn't open up. I grabbed a book and opened to a
random page and showed Linnea what a bookmark is for. I tried finding
a page again without the bookmark, and then with the bookmark. Both of
us smiling and giggly. We were sitting next to a box of tissue, I told
Linnea that my mom uses kleenex as bookmarks and grabbed another book
and marked it! Linnea was amused at how that made the book look and
thought it was funny... And understood that it worked the same as any
bookmark. And I'm pretty sure she also understood why my bookmark
didn't need any more parts or colors or layers to it.

I got back to what I was doing, computer things (as Adam Daniel would
say), while Linnea was still checking it all out and playing with her
stuffed toys. Then she stuck my bookmark in one of those books and
asked me to guess which page she wanted, of course I opened to some
unmarked pages first (since this game doesn't have rules against
that), and we both laughed when I got the right page and we played
again. We found a way to play with that bookmark! And a real way, with
real books. That was really cool.


The books were "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "Sixty Million Frenchmen
Can't Be Wrong"-- Both books I have borrowed from Linnea's parents,
and both I have yet to even open... Except to show my friend why I
made that bookmark.

---------------
Holly doesn't post much on her blog. It's here:
http://hollyintherealworld.blogspot.com/

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

dana_burdick

Lovely, just lovely.

I don't know if it's just this week's events, what with the media and some other interactions I've had with children (not my own), but I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes. It is so simple, really. It takes so little to connect. Yet, it be some _powerful_ stuff. <G>

Thanks Holly.
Thanks Sandra.

-Dana