I am taking it SLOW. For real. As in, we laze and lounge and rest and chill and meander and graze and shamble and lounge. I feel no guilt, only sweet goodness and rightness. It is not because I am so huge yet, or so ill, as I am neither huge or ill. But I am a third trimester Mama who finally gets it, the whole greeting-card stuff about how quickly it all goes, and how the dust bunnies can wait and dont sweat the small stuff, I get it I get it I get it and ooooh is it good.
This is how I am not having crying jags. this is how I am not having swelling, headaches, blood pressure stuff, angry outbursts, fits of stress. This is how I nest, I suppose. Of course I make meals, change diapers, read stories, play games. I am still a bartender, even, and yeah the house doenst look 1/2 bad. Well, yes, it looks just that. Half bad. But not all the way bad. We do our 4 o'clock cleanup and I made a menu and we bought food from it and are following it. Lots of educational tv shows, lots of kids making stuff, lots of canteloupe and popcorn and cheese is your lunch...and everyone seems really chill about it all. I like this. I am not going to change it up. It is working. I cant believe how calm I feel. Really really interesting. We played with our musical instruments and toys this morning from about 8:30 to 11, it was a riot! Hope I can afford a little videocamera soon, Charlie jumping up and down with sunglasses, a diaper, and socks with his eyes closed and a plastic flute halfway down his throat was tru YouTube stuff! Precious babies, I hope the amnesia Fairies take away all their old memories of pregnant Mommy because I used to be such a demon. Poor sweet little kids, I love them so so much.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
A new website for homeschooling..maybe
After our short-lived run last year with Cosmeo, we have been sort of wary of trying to get all into any "learning" websites. Cosmeo could be really cool, but it was always breaking and crashing and it was becoming very frustrating and disappointing for me AND the kids. Maybe it works better now, maybe the glitches are out, but I am not in the mood for the energy it took just to get to a little lesson on fractions or blue whales, it was very confusing to operate.
Many people on one of my homeschooling lists have been talking about a site called Time4Learning. So I checked it out just now and it seems pretty cute. There is a free trial period (essential!!!) and it is like 20 bucks a month, (about the price of NetFlix that we are too tired too ever watch the movies from) so we might do it. It has timers so you can set the lesson time from like 15 minutes onward, and it tracks their progress, etc. It seems friendly and cool. If you have kids who are very comfortable and happy with computers versus paperwork like mine are, this might go down quite easily.
More if we actually try it for real....in the meantime, come on, spring!
Many people on one of my homeschooling lists have been talking about a site called Time4Learning. So I checked it out just now and it seems pretty cute. There is a free trial period (essential!!!) and it is like 20 bucks a month, (about the price of NetFlix that we are too tired too ever watch the movies from) so we might do it. It has timers so you can set the lesson time from like 15 minutes onward, and it tracks their progress, etc. It seems friendly and cool. If you have kids who are very comfortable and happy with computers versus paperwork like mine are, this might go down quite easily.
More if we actually try it for real....in the meantime, come on, spring!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Whats up with bike helmets
Why do bike helmets sit all loose and teeter-y on the tippy top of kids' heads? what is that? Who falls off of their bike in a perfect 180 degree upside-down arc? Does anyone really know the answer to this? Is it because if they were more like motorcycle/football helmets, there would be obstructed vision?
Casey wears a bike helmet all the time in the house lately, don't ask me why, and I just stare at the thing and it confounds me.
Casey wears a bike helmet all the time in the house lately, don't ask me why, and I just stare at the thing and it confounds me.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Scout inspired
As far as homeschool...we are kind of like in "August Mode" now. Except instead of "When we start school" everything is "When Mama is done working". My job has wiped me out now, officially. The day after I work I am almost useless. I cant form thoughts or keep my temper under check at all. I want to eat in bed and thats about it. Of course, I manage and the kids are doing lovely things almost all day long, but its not what I want, you know? I feel like a phony and a blob and I hate it.
anyhow, 3 more weeks and I am a full time Mom again. We have a great new idea: Inspired by Mickey's new Wolf Cub Scout Handbook, and Greta's Junior Girl Scout Handbook, we are going to use the activities in these scouting guides for our days. We have no shortage of workbooks, and the kids are willing to do them, but it is the "Activities" that I have been coming up blank on. Just cute nice activities that dont require massive amounts of money or narrow age groups--thats where the scouting guides come in. These are the dearest nicest old fashioned books I have ever seen in a long time. We can work on real badges right at home, and I guess we should do that, but I dont even care. I just love the lessons and accessibility of these ideas. From sports to nature to math and science, morals, citizenship, and very un-digital life skills that could very well get lost once Grandparents are no longer alive, I really appreciate these books and feel ashamed that I didnt really check them out until last night when Mickey had his first Cub Scout meeting and he was reading the book to me from the backseat. "Look, Mama! Marbles! Knot tying! How to build a door jam! Table Tennis, whats that?! Birds, I know all these birds! How to make a birdfeeder! Bow and Arrows! (gulp) All the flags of all the states! Ultimate Frisbee! Bowling!"
I was impressed and inspired. And I have always wanted to "do" Greta's book with her, but just havent fit it in. So these will be our springboards starting in April. I appreciate all the inspiration in my swollen brain, inspiration has been low and guilt has been high.
Today it is supposed to get to 43 degrees, a virtual heat wave (dead serious) so we are going to go on a small outdoors outing, perhaps a nature center for a little trail walk. We are all probably so out of shape, a 1/2 mile paved trail will be a nice start and hopefully somewhat dry for our feet. Rosy cheeks are the opposite of what this family has right now, and will take many weeks to build up the children to what I consider a healthy amount of vigor.
Like Charlotte Mason and many late 1880's contemporaries, I feel in my truest heart that children belong out of doors for much of their days, all year 'round. You might think it is fractions or Thomas Jefferson that has me feeling homeschool-Mama-deficient but it is not, it is access to the out of doors that I truly lament. I VOW that next year this will regain its priority in our family, like it was at out old house. It was a shoddy, rickety old place, but we had a magnificent yard and we were out there late morning and back out from mid-afternoon until supper and beyond, seriously all year round. EXPLORING.
there is less opportunity for exploring here, and alot of our property is unfenced. Going on walks is much more difficult because even though I live in a very normal suburban area, we have a very "rural" lack of sidewalks and it is weird and hard to push the stroller or get the little bikes all managed when we have to go in the street so much...but oh well. Its no excuse. Karen Andreola, in my favorite book of all time, told of nature walks with her children when they lived in downtown London flats, and so I have no excuse. There are critters and flora here in our back and front yards, as well as 2 parks we can walk to and the rest, well, we may have to drive and thats ok, too.
When I compare our homeschool to what I want it to be, we fall very short. But when I compare our homeschool to SCHOOL, I know that the children are very, very V E R Y lucky and very very blessed to have access to such precious days with me, each other, and their friends. This is what keeps me going and this is what it is right now.
Looking forward to spring and not working and boy/girl scout based activities and the new baby and all of it....
MamaJoy
anyhow, 3 more weeks and I am a full time Mom again. We have a great new idea: Inspired by Mickey's new Wolf Cub Scout Handbook, and Greta's Junior Girl Scout Handbook, we are going to use the activities in these scouting guides for our days. We have no shortage of workbooks, and the kids are willing to do them, but it is the "Activities" that I have been coming up blank on. Just cute nice activities that dont require massive amounts of money or narrow age groups--thats where the scouting guides come in. These are the dearest nicest old fashioned books I have ever seen in a long time. We can work on real badges right at home, and I guess we should do that, but I dont even care. I just love the lessons and accessibility of these ideas. From sports to nature to math and science, morals, citizenship, and very un-digital life skills that could very well get lost once Grandparents are no longer alive, I really appreciate these books and feel ashamed that I didnt really check them out until last night when Mickey had his first Cub Scout meeting and he was reading the book to me from the backseat. "Look, Mama! Marbles! Knot tying! How to build a door jam! Table Tennis, whats that?! Birds, I know all these birds! How to make a birdfeeder! Bow and Arrows! (gulp) All the flags of all the states! Ultimate Frisbee! Bowling!"
I was impressed and inspired. And I have always wanted to "do" Greta's book with her, but just havent fit it in. So these will be our springboards starting in April. I appreciate all the inspiration in my swollen brain, inspiration has been low and guilt has been high.
Today it is supposed to get to 43 degrees, a virtual heat wave (dead serious) so we are going to go on a small outdoors outing, perhaps a nature center for a little trail walk. We are all probably so out of shape, a 1/2 mile paved trail will be a nice start and hopefully somewhat dry for our feet. Rosy cheeks are the opposite of what this family has right now, and will take many weeks to build up the children to what I consider a healthy amount of vigor.
Like Charlotte Mason and many late 1880's contemporaries, I feel in my truest heart that children belong out of doors for much of their days, all year 'round. You might think it is fractions or Thomas Jefferson that has me feeling homeschool-Mama-deficient but it is not, it is access to the out of doors that I truly lament. I VOW that next year this will regain its priority in our family, like it was at out old house. It was a shoddy, rickety old place, but we had a magnificent yard and we were out there late morning and back out from mid-afternoon until supper and beyond, seriously all year round. EXPLORING.
there is less opportunity for exploring here, and alot of our property is unfenced. Going on walks is much more difficult because even though I live in a very normal suburban area, we have a very "rural" lack of sidewalks and it is weird and hard to push the stroller or get the little bikes all managed when we have to go in the street so much...but oh well. Its no excuse. Karen Andreola, in my favorite book of all time, told of nature walks with her children when they lived in downtown London flats, and so I have no excuse. There are critters and flora here in our back and front yards, as well as 2 parks we can walk to and the rest, well, we may have to drive and thats ok, too.
When I compare our homeschool to what I want it to be, we fall very short. But when I compare our homeschool to SCHOOL, I know that the children are very, very V E R Y lucky and very very blessed to have access to such precious days with me, each other, and their friends. This is what keeps me going and this is what it is right now.
Looking forward to spring and not working and boy/girl scout based activities and the new baby and all of it....
MamaJoy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
