Hanna, Homeschooler – Chapter 1

Hanna, Homeschooler
Click on the cover to read more about Hanna.

Below you will find the first chapter of my chapter book,ย Hanna, Homeschooler. I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to leave comments below. You can purchaseย Hanna in e-book or paperback at Amazon.com and BN.com.

*

Hanna sat in the window seat looking out at the grey morning. It was seven-thirty, and usually she wouldnโ€™t be dressed yet. But she dressed for this morning.

The two girls across the street, first Kira and then Cassie, came out of their houses. They were right on time.

Kira and Cassie were going to the first day of school. Hanna wasnโ€™t. She sat in the window seat, thinking about that.

Hanna had only moved into this house during the summer. A few months before, her dad had lost his job. Mom said Gram needed help with the big house now that Gramp was gone. So they moved from their cabin in the Sierra mountains to Central California, where Mom had grown up.

It was flat, and hot, and there were so many houses. They had left behind Hannaโ€™s friend, Henry, and all the trees that Hanna knew like people.

Hanna
Hanna sits in the window seat watching her neighbors go to the first day of school.

Hannaโ€™s dad had been leaving home early to go to school. He was training to be a nurse, which Kira said was weird. Mom explained that being a nurse was a good job, but in the past, only women did it.

But Dad was doing it because he wanted to help people. Hanna didnโ€™t think that was weird.

Kira and Cassie were different than any kids Hanna had known. Hanna wondered if they thought she was weird, too.

Kira and Cassieโ€™s moms backed their cars into the street and were gone.

โ€œWhat are you doing up so early, pumpkin?โ€ Mom asked Hanna, coming up behind and kissing her head.

Hanna squirmed away.

โ€œUh-oh, the rare spiny pumpkin has come to our house again!โ€ Mom said. โ€œWhat do you see happening out there on those manicured lawns?โ€

โ€œKira and Cassie went to school,โ€ Hanna said. โ€œI wonder what they are going to do for the first day. What are we going to do today?โ€

โ€œOh, I donโ€™t know,โ€ Mom said, stroking Hannaโ€™s hair. โ€œIโ€™d like to do some baking.โ€

Hanna sighed. That didnโ€™t sound like much of a plan.

Hannaโ€™s mom was very busy with the baby, David, who was really not a baby anymore. He was born early and spent months inside an incubator getting big enough to come home, so Mom said heโ€™d be like a baby a little longer than other kids.

David was almost two and he crawled almost as fast as Hanna could walk. Hannaโ€™s mom said Gramโ€™s house was a babyproofing nightmare. Gram fought with Mom about moving her knickknacks up out of the kidsโ€™ reach. Gram said her house was looking all disarranged.

When she thought Hanna wasnโ€™t listening, Mom told Dad the house was like a dusty tschatschke shop. That word was pronounced โ€œchach-kah.โ€ That was Momโ€™s word for all Gramโ€™s stuff. Gram didnโ€™t like to get rid of anything.

Hanna liked Gramโ€™s stuffโ€”each thing had a story. And she liked the window seat where she could sit and see so much action.

Mom went off to dress David and Hanna wandered into Gramโ€™s room.

Gram used to sleep in the big master bedroom upstairs where Mom and Dad were sleeping now, but she wasnโ€™t so good with stairs now. Her room was back behind the living room and had wine-colored wallpaper with a flower pattern. Gram called it the โ€œden,โ€ which made Hanna think it used to be inhabited by lions. But Mom told her it used to be the TV room.

Gram had a TV in there, and it was always on, playing the weather.

โ€œHi Gram,โ€ Hanna said from the doorway. Her parents had told her not to go in unless she was invited.

โ€œHannietta,โ€ Gram said. She was sitting at her vanity so her reflection looked at Hanna. โ€œCome in.โ€

Hanna sniffed as she entered the room. The whole house smelled like Gram, but it was strongest in this room. Dust, roses, and furniture polish.

Gram turned. She had a little object in her hand, which shook like she was cold. Hanna knew that Gram used to make beautiful things like the quilt on Hannaโ€™s bed. Now her hands wouldnโ€™t let her sew or knit anymore.

โ€œYou can help me with this, dear,โ€ she said.

Hanna stood over her and looked down at the yellowed book on Gramโ€™s vanity. It had pictures stuck on with little black corners, which was what Gram had in her hand. Hanna noticed that one corner was missing from around a photo of a smiling man in a uniform.

โ€œItโ€™s so hard for me to place these, now,โ€ Gram said, letting Hanna take the corner from her hand. โ€œCan you lick it and stick it on that corner?โ€

Hanna licked the back of the little corner and eased it onto the photo. She and Gram pressed down their fingers one on top of the other to stick it down.

โ€œThatโ€™s Gramps,โ€ she said to Hanna.

โ€œGramps?โ€ Hanna was surprised. He was young and thin and had a full head of hair. The Gramps Hanna remembered was old and thin and quiet.

โ€œHavenโ€™t you seen my photos yet?โ€ Gram answered. โ€œOh, I have so many. From when I was a child, when your grandfather and I married, when your mother was young.โ€

Gram pointed to the handsome young Gramps and a group shot of young men in uniform. โ€œThis was when Gramps went to war. Did you know he was a fighter pilot?โ€

Hanna shook her head.

โ€œOh, yes, he was a hero!โ€ Gram exclaimed. โ€œHe went overseas and shot down enemy planes. Then his plane was shot down and we didnโ€™t hear from him for two years.โ€

Gramโ€™s face softened into that faraway look she got.

โ€œHis family and my family lived across the street from each other in Brooklyn, you know. In New York. We knew each other before we knew each other!โ€

Gram bubbled with laughter.

โ€œWe always knew each otherโ€™s business because from our living room you could see right into his. I remember the day the telegram came saying he was missing in actionโ€”the army didnโ€™t know where he was, but they thought the Germans had probably caught him. That day I saw the telegraph boy go up the steps of his house and I ran across the street and was there before theyโ€™d even had a chance to read it. I can still hear his father reading that telegram, and his mother trying not to cry, and his little sisterโ€”thatโ€™s Aunt Mollyโ€”saying, What does it mean? What does it mean?โ€

Hanna considered this story.

โ€œSo Aunt Molly was a little girl?โ€ she asked doubtfully. Aunt Molly had always seemed even older and stricter than Gram.

Gram bubbled with laughter again. โ€œWhy, yes, dear, she was nearly ten years younger than George. Havenโ€™t you ever seen our family tree?โ€

โ€œWhatโ€™s a family tree?โ€ Hanna asked.

โ€œLetโ€™s draw one!โ€ a voice said cheerfully from the door. It was Mom, whoโ€™d been watching with David balanced on her hip. โ€œCome on!โ€

Gram and Hanna followed Mom out of Gramโ€™s bedroom.

Mom opened the cabinet in the dining room which sheโ€™d emptied of Gramโ€™s stuff so she could keep homeschooling supplies.ย  She drew out an enormous roll of white butcher paper, placed David on the floor, and rolled it out. She fixed the paper at each end of the long dining room table with tape and then ripped off the roll.

Meanwhile, Gram had figured out what Mom was up to. Sheโ€™d taken out Hannaโ€™s bucket of markers. She wrote Rosa Weinstein in red at the top of the butcher paper and circled it. Next to that, she wrote Schmuel Schimmelfarb in blue. Gramโ€™s letters were shaky like the scary letters on Halloween posters.

โ€œCan you help me, Hannietta?โ€ Gram asked. โ€œUnder Rosa, write 1884, and under Schmuel, write 1878.โ€

*

Hanna was surprised when lunchtime came. She and Gram had munched on apples and muffins while the family tree spread and grew down the paper so they had to connect some of the people with snaking long lines.

When she looked at it, Hanna did think it looked like a tree, with long, long roots. Gram could remember all the names and almost all the birthdates without looking at her book, but after they were done she got out her book and showed Hanna pictures of all these people who were related to Hanna. There were so many! And they came from countries in the world that didnโ€™t even exist anymore.

After lunch, Mom printed out a map of Europe and Hanna outlined and shaded in where Austria-Hungary was when Rosa and Schmuel had left and come to America by ship. The ship only had sails and no motor! Then Hanna went outside to swing and climb the tree, while Mom and Gram helped David learn how to use the baby slide.

โ€œAre you really so set on keeping her out of school?โ€ Hanna heard Gram ask. โ€œDo you really think sheโ€™ll learn what she needs to?โ€

Sometimes Gram and Mom talked grown-up talk that made Hanna feel like she was just a name on the family tree.

*

Later, when she was sure they were home, Hanna got permission to go across the street to see Kira and Cassie. She found them talking at Cassieโ€™s swingset, looking serious and proud.

โ€œMy teacherโ€™s name is Mrs. Conger,โ€ Cassie said. โ€œWe made our handprints with finger paint and traced our names under them to put on the wall.โ€

Cassie, Hanna knew, was in kindergarten. She didnโ€™t know how to read yet, but she was big and strong and Hanna liked her funny laugh.

โ€œMy teacherโ€™s name is Mr. Greg,โ€ Kira said. โ€œMy mom was afraid I wouldnโ€™t like a boy teacher, but heโ€™s so nice. And in first grade, we donโ€™t have to take naps like kinders.โ€

โ€œWhat did you do in school today?โ€ Kira asked Hanna.

Hanna felt their curious eyes on her as she felt her face get hot.

โ€œOh, nothing,โ€ she said. โ€œWe just baked muffins.โ€


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Comments

One response to “Hanna, Homeschooler – Chapter 1”

  1. Es autodidacta total y con los videos de internet ha progresado muchรญsimo.