Apples

My daughter called last night to give me the news about her daughter's latest tests and report card. Of course her language grades are off the chart and she is doing well in both reading and writing. Neither of us was the least bit surprised since all of my children did the same. My mother was a writer, her mother, her father...back several generations. In fact, I posted one of my great-grandfather's little newspaper columns on my other blog this morning and I thought of it as a "printed blog". LOL I come from a family that just has to communicate. It's in our genes. One of grandmother's favorite sayings comes to mind- "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.'

However, when I heard my granddaughter's math score, my reaction was just as predictable- That apple came from someone else's tree!! The fact that she is in the fifth grade and doing eighth grade math proves that it takes two people to create a child. :) That math gene either came from her dad or it is a recessive gene from about six generations back in my family tree! I can't recall anyone in our family doing well in math. I had to stay after school three days a week to get a C in geometry. My daughter used to hide her math papers so I wouldn't be disappointed. Okay, my son didn't do too poorly, but I can't say he ever liked math!

My other granddaughter is also great at math. Maybe it is a recessive gene that just needed a good math gene from someone else and they both had good math genes from their dads. Hey, maybe I'm good at science! LOL

All this brings me to the serious conclusion that environment and heredity work together to create some interesting combinations. While we may take some credit for how our children turn out, there are always surprises. And there are things we can't change. We might like to give our children our confidence or our talent for art or our ability to sing or our love of nature, but we may end up with a shy child who hates art, loves to dance, and wants to live in the city. God is the creator, we are just the caretakers.

Comments

[Katrina]

You did NOT just suggest that Hope got her math skills from her father, did you? Oh my.

Austin is also good at math.

Go figure.