Chords and other adventures

Arthur is 17 now and more aware than ever of what is going on around him. After my discouraged and unsuccessful attempt to teach him how to play one chord on the guitar at the recent bluegrass festival, I regrouped. Armed with the encouragement from my happiness calendar that exhorts me to try something 8 times, I got out the ukelele chord chart bought a while back.

Arthur has had a uke for several years which he strums with great style. We've worked on ABC's and 123's for years too. Thursday, when I pulled out the chord chart, the Lord inspired me to bring those worlds together. I realized that music uses just the first 7 letters and numbers, so as we would focus on those  he would learn them out of order and every other way. We practiced writing and saying them, then I went to teach him G on the ukelele. But I soon realized that he did not really know what frets were, nor strings. So we pointed at them and said them out loud and wrote them out as words.

Next, I wrote 1,2,3,4 on our fingernails. One was on our left index finger, two on middle, three on ring, four on pinky. The chord chart shows the chord made with those fingers set on the strings at different frets. Then I showed him G on the chart and we built it one finger at a time. He did much better than he had on the guitar: he held the first finger in the right place right away! We'll work again this week, reviewing everything and adding as we can. This was super encouraging for me as well as him!

Arthur always helps me grocery shop and brings in the groceries from the trunk of the car for me. The trunk only locks when the doors are locked with the key fob. Yesterday, since it had rained, he was spiffily dressed in slacks, a long sleeved shirt, his bright red Kamiakin sweatshirt and driving cap. Dennis and I were getting ready to take him out for Saturday errands after we had told him it was time to go.

We gathered our keys, filled the water bottles and went out to the car, but no Arthur! He wasn't in his room or either bathroom. So we checked the basketball court, the trailer and the spare room, but no sign of him! This was getting serious!! He's not very good at hiding in that he always wiggles or giggles, but we looked everywhere twice. Then Dennis got in the car and drove around the block-- nothing. Arthur hasn't wandered away since he was four, so we were stumped! We prayed, searched behind the trees in the yard and were thinking we would have to call 911 when I asked Dennis if he had checked the trunk of the car. There he was! How thankful and relieved we were!!!!! His hair was dripping wet under his cap but he didn't seem afraid at all. We hugged him and told him how glad we were to find him!!! We are hoping he learned that you can get in the trunk and close it but then it gets hot and you can't get out by yourself so it is best not to do that again!