Late in the afternoon when the shadows were long on the meadows and we could get a whiff of some cool autumn air, we went out in the golf cart. Andy was driving, Quincy our almost-two year old grandson, and Lola the dachshund were packed in between us. It seemed like heaven.

Quincy is here for the third overnight with his grandparents. He's a very secure little guy, has his routine, loves everything. We drove up from the city this morning and he didn't say a word. I pointed out some things to him and he paid attention as I could see in his big eyes in the rear view mirror. But mostly he was busy sucking his thumb and fondling his 'lovey'.

When we arrived he immediately went about exploring his familiar places, lovey forgotten. He wanted to connect with his favorite cupbords and he wanted to climb onto our high canopied bed, check out our voice mail, see if the remotes were in order. I had been awake since very early and actually wanted to check my e-mail, be an adult. No way!

But the day passed so quickly. I just kick back and spend time under the pear tree watching our youngest grandson look at the fish and the snails in the water lily pond. I gave him a spray bottle of water so he could spray the fish, good for at least a half hour while I weeded out the spent water lilies and the abundant anacharis,and watered the garden beds.

With kids, everything is new and slow. Everything needs attention. I see this even in the local primary class where I volunteer one day a week. These kids are somewhat older, but they are still little. I am coming to understand the terrible disconnect between what we know about child development and what is expected from those wonderful public school teachers.

In the various permutations of the no child left behind act, it plays out that almost every child will be left behind because they are always being pulled out of class to be tested or tutored or tweaked in some way. I have never been in a class that didn't have several children pulled out in the middle of an activity. This week, for the first time, we took all the kids outside (Yikes!) to plant seeds for a garden. So, when the 'pull out' people came for the kids, they were nowhere to be found. They were outdoors planting bean seeds and scattering wildflowers.