A Week, Briefly (9/3/18)

We're getting 6 eggs a day right now . . . and watching for that number to increase.  The pretty eggs are a joy to me.

I had an almost-panic attack this week.

I spent a few hours on Tuesday wavering back and forth between freaking out and using our family mantra to try to bring myself to a functional place.

It was moving laundry and my best friend from college that saved me.

Work and talk.

And listening.

When I talked, I cried.

When I asked questions about my friend and listened to her, I calmed down.

I needed all three--working, talking, listening--to come back to myself.

And good teens who put (the already prepared) dinner on the table, got the littles cleaned up, and then fed them.  (Thank you, Super Star and Belle!!!)

I don't know whether the work I'm doing is that hard or if I'm just a wimp.

But it feels that hard.

So I made some changes.

The first was that I gave up half an hour of my personal quiet time to do school with Ladybug.  It sounds counter-intuitive, and I'm still struggling with it a little, but I get her up, take her potty, and start.

I don't even let her get dressed.

She's still too sleepy to think of mischief, and the positive eye-contact and encouragement I offer during lessons is starting the day off well.

For us both.

A win for her is a win for me.

And vice-versa.

Nothing she does the whole rest of the day can cancel the fact that we've already done individual lessons and we've already had a good experience together.

The second change is acknowledging that the 3-year-olds just want to do worksheets and feel like students.  They don't actually want to do school.

I printed a bunch of free preschool pages, bound them in a couple of report covers I had in the school supply cabinet, handed Lola and Baymax the crayon bin, and they are as happy as can be.

And I don't have to come up with lesson time for them . . . yet.

Plus, they do their coloring and cutting and "writing" while I do individual lessons with other kids, so I don't have to work as hard to keep an eye and ear on where they are and what they're doing.

They're close!

Win-win-win!!!

But sometimes I still get the "real school" supplies out for them and let them play on their own.

And finally, I've simplified our Shiller lessons by dumping the record-keeping.  I love the idea of their record-keeping, but it is too much X6 or even X4.

I keep our records here, anyway.

Instead I put the kids' names on post-it notes, and I put the post-its on the appropriate lessons for each kid as book marks.  Now I just open the book to the right book-mark, grab the supplies out of the drawer, and start.  I don't care how long we spent or what number lesson we covered because we're just doing the next thing when it is right to do it.

I'll take a picture and make note of when kids finish a book or reach a milestone and record it here.

Like this:

Brother didn't need many of the lessons in Language Arts Book 1 because it consists mostly of letter recognition and sound activities.  But there were a good number of lessons about listening, sequencing, narrating, and other aspects of language arts that were really good for him.  He's done with this one and moving into Book 2 next week.

I already feel less frantic.

I need to acknowledge the hand of my Heavenly Father, who I firmly believe is whispering these ideas to me in answer to my personal prayers for help.  How grateful I am to be His beloved daughter!

Every day of the week, interesting things happened:

Sunday--We had a family testimony meeting for our family night activity.  The littles captivated us with their odd-but-sincere-and-oh-so-sweet statements of faith.

Monday--School all day while we also dealt with car troubles and a broken dryer.  That night we headed to a friend's house to share in their family night.  We listened to their 4 year old teach us about the creation (so, so cute!) and then we played games indoors and out.

The only warm dry day of the week (I'm not complaining--we need rain), I sent Beowulf outside to play when he was too wild to be indoors.  He stayed out for so long without coming in to complain and without someone else coming in to complain about him that I went searching.  I found Nature Angel with him, guiding his play with her orderly-yet-imaginative mind.  He was so happy to follow her lead and have a "big" buddy all to himself.  They've got a full kitchen set up here, and the toy fridge is full of "food."

Tuesday--More school, more car troubles.  Pixie went to work, and Super Star filled out yet another job application.  The Moscow Ballet has a world-wide outreach program for ballet students, and they were auditioning kids to perform with them.  We had a friend alert us to the opportunity, and Pixie took it (with much trepidation as she came late to dance and has a fraction of the experience of other girls her age).  She came home glowing because not only did she find that there were a number of other teens with limited experience and great love of ballet, but she gets to be a Snow Maiden in the Nutcracker with the Moscow Ballet!!!!  She'll be on stage for about 45 seconds, but she'll really be on stage dancing with the Moscow Ballet!!!!

It's too exciting. :)

Wednesday--Still coping with car troubles.  Belle went to the farm in the rain.  We got limited school done because we had to shuffle drivers and kids needing rides and picking up cars from the shop.  That night was youth activities at the church and at the temple for teens and tweens and Dad, so there was a lot of driving in a lot of directions.

One of Nature Angel's school drawings this week.

Thursday--Dance day.  Limited school in the morning, a lot of dancing in the afternoon.  Pixie had more dance that night.  Our family evening reading sessions have come to another pause as this term's dance classes have begun.  We're still reading Little Women in the mornings as part of our school day, but in the evenings, Nature Angel, Little Princess, Mister Man, and I are reading Wanted:  Mud Blossom now that we've finished Mr. Revere and I.

A math lesson on tesselation for Mister Man.

Friday--A full school day coupled with yet another car in the shop and a malfunctioning dishwasher.  Rose Red had a job interview with Chipotle.  Sir Walter Scott--though fighting the cold that has been going through the family all week--was busy with phone calls, repairs, giving rides, and running errands with small boys in tow who needed time with their daddy. 

Saturday--Pixie left at dawn to take the ACT.  Sir Walter Scott and I left before dawn so I could take him to work because we still have a car in the shop.  Once our Saturday babysittees arrived, and breakfast was over, I settled down to work on preparing for my 2 co-op classes that begin this coming Tuesday.  I ran errands with a few kids in tow while Belle held down the fort at home.  I got lost trying to find an awesome recycled craft supply shop (I need supplies for co-op!), and a hose in the car began leaking.  With smoke pouring out from under my hood, I pulled over and tried to call Sir Walter Scott and AAA simultaneously.  However, Heavenly Father sent me a guardian angel in the form of a mechanic and his wife and small son who saw us and came over to help.  The smoke turned out to be steam.  He had some tape in his car, and he looked things over, patched the leak enough to get us home, and bashfully accepted our profound thanks. I came home to find wall-to-wall Legos and a worn out Belle, so I made sandwiches and piled the kids into the van that came home with Pixie ("The ACT was easy--except for the science part!  That was impossible!" she said).  We spend the afternoon at the zoo and missed the call that our little car was fixed and ready for pickup immediately. 

Well pick it up Monday morning . . . probably when we drop the other car off to have the hose replaced.

My parents came over for dinner one night this week, and my dad had lots of questions about homeschooling.  (I'm not sure why--he reads this blog, and he's been aware of our homeschooling since it began 15+ years ago.)  I found myself saying, "There's no problem teaching the kids.  It's mostly play and incredibly fun.  Why would I worry about what I do and don't know when there are infinite resources out there available for all of us to find out what we need to know.  Mostly, my job is to teach the kids how to find and interpret those resources."

As the words came out of my mouth, I realized that saying homeschooling is "fun" and "play" is quite different from the frustrations I voice on this blog. 

But both are true.

The actual teaching part is pure joy.

It's the managing home and behaviors and kids that's hard.

Teaching is a fraction of what I do, but oh! I do love it! 

If I could teach in a vacuum of utter peace and ease, there'd be almost no challenge.  But I teach in the midst of a full life, and therein lies the challenge.

I'm glad I said what I did to my dad.  It was good for me to find that truth hiding in the dark and bring it out to the light.  I do love teaching/directing/facilitating my kids' educations.  I love the shared joy of a good story, a science ah-ha, a history connection, or a math concept made clear.  I love discussions with my teens and projects with my young ones.  I love looking into their eyes and sharing the joy of leaning.

Now, to work on getting to love tantrums, medical appointments, broken dishwashers, cars in the shop, unfinished chores, crayons on walls, Legos in mouths, and teens who sleep incessantly . . .