http://steppingonlegos.com/homeschooling

14-Jun-2007

Homeschooling Gone Wrong

Category : Blog

Today Noah asked what Thanksgiving was all about. I explained that it was a day that Pilgrims and Pirates sat to share a meal. Dalton stood by, giving me shocked and horrified looks and finally had to interrupt to correct me. It was just a slip of the tongue, I swear.

I have a habit of sharing too much information. I generally use the theory that it is better to say too much on the off chance that the kid is more intelligent than one would assume. I tend to teach to the eldest and let the younger kids absorb as much as they are able. And honestly most of the time I’m pleasantly surprised at just how much they absorb, despite their ages.

So I explained about the Native Americans – the good, the bad and the ugly. And while Noah can understand the theories, he doesn’t have the concrete idea of time or space to put it all together in a realistic picture. Noah wants to understand the timeline so he asks questions like “Did this happen millions of years ago before the dinosaurs?” (timeline errors number 1 and 2 and maybe 3!) and “Did this happen before my name existed?” (a common point of reference for him as he’s proud of his Biblical name). I think we need to bust out the old timelines and start adding things to them as they come up in conversation. I’m not sure we have enough wall space for a billion-year-long timeline.

There is more but its not pretty. I’ll spare you. Finally the conversation shifted to food. “Isn’t that the day we kill the huge chicken?” These conversations just make my kids shine with knowledge and brilliance, right? Yeah, he knows what a turkey is. Being a vegetarian, he doesn’t really differentiate the meat on the table – it’s all just animals with eyes. And somehow this turns into a discussion of where we can get our next Eggnog fix. In June.

Is it bad that I was like “Hey, why don’t you go turn on Boomerang for awhile?!” haha.

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09-Jan-2007

Lofty Goals

Category : Blog

Ok, I don’t make resolutions so I’m calling this a goal. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about how I needed to reflect more often on the little things that mean a lot to me or that I’m grateful for on a daily basis. Reading over posts from the last year, I am saddened by how stressful, negative and generally unhappy my last year was. I try to be real (as real as you can be on a public blog) and being real means that I’m not always happy, I’m not always feeling full of energy or beaming with optimism. But I hope to strike a better balance in 2007 and beyond – both on my blog and in my everyday life.

So that’s my goal for 2007 and beyond. To reflect, daily, on at least one thing that was great, amazing, special about my day. Of course doing so would make this blog sickeningly sweet and probably intolerable to read. So I am going to couple this goal with a goal to blog daily. I’ll just append the reflection to the bottom of each post. Skip it if it annoys you.

So without further ado:

My first 9 in 2007 (to catch me up):

1. Addison is such a good eater. I am so thankful for this (until she eats random scraps off the carpet!!). Noah is a vegetarian, which I respect, but it’s no picnic cooking for a family of 9 when one child can’t eat meat and the rest crave it. I don’t think that will be an issue for Addison so for that I am thankful.

2. I love my sewing machine. A friend gave it to me because she thought I would really use it. I have used it and used it some more. I recently considered buying a new one as this one is literally falling apart but I just love it too much to replace it. It has brought me hours and hours of enjoyment, pride, a sense of personal accomplishment and my kids really value what I can create with that little machine. Plus I’ve been able to teach at least one of my boys how to sew which brings me (and his future wife) great pride.

3. Staying home with my kids is such a blessing. I am so fortunate to be able to do this. Sometimes I miss working outside the home. A lot. But when I seriously consider getting a job and all that I would miss during the day, I can’t even conceive of it. And then I realize how fortunate I am to be in a position where it is an option.

4. I really appreciate the ease at which kids can learn anything they put their minds to. I love giving Dalton a graphic program and watching him figure it out and throw together templates complete with Cascading Style sheets as if he always known and understood the technology. I love that, very soon, he will know more about digital cameras and website design than I do. Watching kids’ minds work is one of the most amazing miracles I’ve ever seen.

5. I love that Teegan is excited about multiplication flashcards!

6. I love that my husband is so optimistic about everything, all the time. He almost never gets disillusioned by what life throws his way. I could learn a lot from following in his footsteps.

7. I love that Addison cries when one of us walks out of the room. I love that when we are in a new place or she sees a new person, her reaction is to look to myself or her Daddy for reassurance. She seems to be saying “Please explain the world to me, I trust you”. I love being her Mama.

8. I love that the first thing Noah did the other day when Daddy gave him the rest of his coveted Eggnog Shake was to walk it around the house and offer sips to each and every sibling before he took a sip of his own.

9. I love that my husband is here to relieve me of the burden of dealing with dental drama.

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07-Sep-2006

6 Random Thoughts

Category : Blog

1) My dogs have a fun new habit. They do this as soon as anyone gets up out of their seat sensing opportunity. They know it is naughty. I don’t know what to do about it! They are clearly dumb since they never touch the open bag of dog food in the open pantry or dig through the garbage like normal dogs. They won’t even pee outside. They are total sissy cat-dogs. Don’t tell them I told you that.

2)In lieu of screens, my kids just homeschool all day “for fun”. They do craft projects with their baby brother. They listen to A Story of the World Vol. 4 on cd for *fun* tearing open the package that arrives from Amazon as if it contains the greatest Lego set in the world. Clearly, despite the home education, the boys aren’t all that swift either because otherwise surely they would be more openly hostile without their favorite video games, television and computer time. Intelligent or manipulative. One of those. Of course they were manipulative enough to stay up all night playing video games in their room, thus earning said restriction.

3)In lieu of homeschooling, my 4 year old throws huge tantrums that sound like “How will I EVER LEARN TO READ” screamed at the top of his lungs through sobs while throwing his body on the ground over and over. Why such a travisty? Noah was in a silly mood. I would ask him to sound out the letter “e” and he would respond “tree”. Cute. But not. So I canceled “school” for the day. You can do that when your kid is 4. I did give him a million “chances” and a serious lecture about just giving me a few minutes of his attention to no avail. But when I made good on it, his whole world fell apart. I wonder how long it will be before he stops seeing schooling as a privilege. My plan is never.

4) Childhood obesity’s hidden risk: standing on dresser drawers. Thank goodness I have a skinny lightweight. Otherwise the boy who used the dresser as a climbing gym today would have either broken the beautifully constructed natural pine drawers right off the drawer slides or he would have had the entire 4.5 foot tall 200 lb dresser plus large heavy tv plus dvr plus dvd player plus various dvds come crashing down on him. Or both. So add that to the list why childhood obesity should be avoided right along with increased risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and poor self-esteem. Or at least use wall anchors.

5) Boys without good small motor skills but great imaginations are a tantrum in the making. After fifteen sheets of colored construction paper and many tears of frustration, Noah finally asked if *I* would draw the cool creature in his head. Because I’m such a good artist – a fact every person in my home might quickly dispute. I’ve never had images of anything in my head in my life! Is this a disability? Do I have a disease?

6) Speaking of this, I was watching a recorded Primetime Medical Mysteries (because clearly my anxiety about all things medical needs further compounding) and found out about a disorder where people don’t recognize facial features. Like any good disorder or disease there is, of course, an online quiz. Which I failed. So if you see me walking by, don’t feel obligated to say hello. I won’t recognize you anyway!

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