Day One of Homeschooling

The day started with me waking before the children, which is always a treat (not to get woken BY them). After dropping Eva at preschool (she goes one day a week now- she used to go twice), Theo, Kezia and I went grocery shopping. Theo brought his allowance spending money ($1.25) to buy something. At the check out, it was hard for him find anything for less than a dollar (I warned him about taxes). In the end he got some mini eggs with a little help from his mom ($.08). Then we set out to the dollar store to find a change purse for him as he has been using Eva’s hello kitty one.

Once home we had snack together. Then we started math. I decided to start with money since he is interested in money right now, and has been given his first allowance. We played a game where we roll a die and then take the number rolled in change from the change pot. He had to say the number, and then say what he was collecting. For ex. if he rolled a 6, he had to say I am taking 6 pennies, or 1 nickel and 1 penny. After each roll, you have to trade in any change that can be made into a smaller number of coins. For example if you have two nickels, you have to trade them for 1 dime- and state what you are doing. We went all the way to a dollar. It was fun and a challenge at the same time; the perfect start to homeschooling. I am sure we will play again.

Next we moved on to journaling. Yesterday, we were at Science World and so I thought he could write about what he saw, learned, and did. He drew his picture first but was not interested in writing any words along side. So I said he could write about anything he wanted. But for some reason, (still unknown) he had a spazz. He scribbled over the picture and then came into the kitchen where I was preparing lunch and he threw the book and the pencil on the floor.

I set lunch out for the three of us, and he refused to come and eat. He just wanted to go on the computer, so I used that opportunity to let him know he wouldn’t be allowed to use the computer until he ate his lunch. Eventually he came and ate. During lunch Theo’s wiggly tooth came out. He has been quite anxious about it, and so I was thankful to be able to be there for him when it happened. It bled a little, and like his father; this made him feel uneasy.

After an unsuccessful attempt at putting Kezia down for a nap, I started on dinner preparations. I asked Theo to peel the carrots and he obliged. While peeling, one of the peels landed on his forehead. We both laughed. I cherished that moment. As he was peeling, he said, “Sorry I was bad before mom.” I cherished that moment. Then I let him do some chopping of veggies.

Next we set up an email account for him. He was thrilled to receive emails from family and typed many replies. We decided to take a photo of the missing tooth and send it to everyone. During the photo shoot, Kezia (who was having some diaper free time) decided to get the potty out. She put it on the bedroom floor and then pooped in it. So again we had another laugh. Thankfully it was solid!

Then it was time to get Eva from preschool. As soon as she got in the van, she noticed Theo’s missing tooth. Then Theo got talking about a friend who had many missing teeth. I said, “who is this friend?” and he replied, “It is a boy in Ms. S’s class.” I was amazed that he didn’t say, “my” class. I thought that it would take more time for him to transition. I realize that this is not necessarily a definite indicator of his transition out of traditional schooling, but it was a comfort nonetheless. The whole day just felt right. I am also thankful that it was just Theo and I (and Kezia) today.

All in all, I feel like today was filled with a pretty accurate picture of what homeschooling will be like: mostly a wonderful experience of spending time with my kids; being involved in their learning; sharing in their joys and frustrations.

A book I read

Out Live Your Life- You Were Made to Make a Difference is Max Lucado's newest book. I was given a copy of it for free from Booksneeze.com. In return I am to post a review of it on my blog. I am not forced into writing a positive review.

Out Live Your Life is about making a difference in this world. It is a very easy read. Light, sometimes convicting, definitely eye opening. The book takes you through several passages of the book of Acts, and retells the trials of Paul as fought to bring Christ's message to people. Lucado writes sixteen chapters, each with it's own topic of how one can make a difference in today's society. He starts out with an inspiring chapter on our once in a lifetime opportunity, followed by a call to the ordinary everyone. Then he gets into the meat of the book by taking up topics such as hospitality, working together, identifying the poor and not ignoring them, giving generously quietly, and breaking down cultural walls.

Personally, I found this book to be somewhat inspiring, a nice reminder of the potential I have to make a difference. It was not a life changing book. It seemed to be a bit shallow. I suppose I feel that anyone who sat down with this topic in mind could have come up with a book as impactful as this. I don't mean to discredit Max Lucado at all. His personal stories are great, and his message true. It just isn't a book that I would rave about to my friends as a must read.

Another Trip to the Hospital

So my sweet Mary... Oh how she likes to keep us on our toes!

Last month, she split her lip and there was a huge whole that seemed to require some stitching up. So off we went to Children's hospital. The first Dr. examined her and immediately responded with, "Oh yes, she will definitely need a couple of stitches here!" She asked if they (the nurses) had applied the "freezing" cream. I replied with, "No- they said you can't put it on lips." She thought this was odd and went to "double check". I wasn't feeling very confident at this point and was feeling quite nervous. Anyways, next thing I know there are like 5 people entering the room, one of whom looked to be in charge. He was in scrubs. He examined Mary. He looked at her lip, he looked at her, he looked at her lip, he looked at me. He asked her to open and close her mouth- he looked at us each again. And then he said, "Nope, I think we'll just leave it." Apparently, they don't stitch the insides of mouths. They let them heal by themselves. Mary's cut was 95% on the inside of her lip, and you could really see it with her mouth closed so he let us go. Relief was all I felt!

Then there was this week. Mary came downstairs crying, "Mommy, there is Lego stuck up my nose!" She was quite panicked. I made her blow her nose, I tried tweezers, nothing worked. So off to the hospital we go. Two hours later, we saw a Dr. Who told me to blow into her mouth, while he plugged the other nostril. This is a miracle procedure is supposed to send objects flying across the room when there is something completely blocking the nasal passage, but Mary's Lego piece was on it's side. We tried it anyways. Five times. We managed to get the Lego piece a little further down, where the Dr. could reach it (after 4 attempts) with his special, extra long tweezers. Again, RELIEF was what we all felt. As much from the Dr. as there was from us. The piece of Lego was the same size as the central yellow piece above but it was round.

A Heart Stopping Parenting Moment

Ok so it's 4am and I can't sleep because I'm thinking about an incident that happened today.

I have my kids registered in a Scottish Dancing class at the community center. My sister has her oldest in the class as well. Parents are not allowed in the room. We have to wait outside, as it may otherwise distract the kids. Most of the time either my sister or I stay right near the room staring in at the kids. This time my brother inlaw came and he took his younger one outside to the play ground. I took Martha across the street to get weighed. (She only gained 5 ounces in two weeks- which is the least of my worries at the moment, but still not great news).

When I got back to the playground, it was two minutes till the end of class. I said, "lets go we gotta pick up the big kids". They're really not big, just 3, 3.5 and almost 5.We get to the class at 4:02 (I guess we walked slow) and the next one has already started. Mary and Joseph's class mates are in the hall with their parents, getting out of their dance shoes, and OUR kids are no where to be seen. I panic; my brother in law searches. We find the kids playing happily, like nothing was out of the ordinary, in the little tots room near the lobby.

So what would you do as a parent?

At first I just said, "good job" to the kids for going to the playroom. But now that I'm lying awake thinking about it, I should tell them not to leave the classroom if they don't see us waiting for them. I will talk to them about that tomorrow.

But really it's not their responsibility- they're preschoolers! I realize that I was late in picking up, I take responsibilty for that. BUT the teacher should not be releasing the kids out of the classroom without checking that the parent is there. Is that not true? Am I crazy to think that the teacher should just make them sit against the wall or take them to the front desk until a parent arrives? What if I had been hit by car? Where would my kids have been? And for how long until someone noticed that there was no parent there? It makes me sick just thinking about it.

And now, what do I do about it? Should I call the supervisor at the community center and tell them what happened? Do I call the instructor? Do I wait until next week and talk to the instructor? I don't even want to send the kids back to her class to be honest. But the kids really love going to it.What would you do?