1. The Biltmore Estate
On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Chris spontaneously took the two girls to The Biltmore Estate for a Daddy-Daughter day. Then as he drove down the highways and byways, he realized he'd be driving near to some dear friends of ours who live along the route, so he picked up their same-aged daughter, too, and you can imagine the joy-filled girlie antics that filled the day.
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| Look at those innocent beauties! |
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| A squirrel carved of chocolate |
2. Mama and Sons Day
I stayed home with the boys to do middle school homework with John, various house chores, and regular naps. Then I took the boys out to dinner at a fairly nice, sit-down restaurant since we didn't go to the Biltmore. I can't remember the last time I took children out like that by myself because I don't have a second adult with me in case of a potty visit, tantrum, or general problem arising.
This time, I chanced it and I took us all to visit the restrooms before even sitting at our table.
So, when we were in the middle of eating our meals and my darling three-year-old told me politely, "Me need to go to the restroom, Mama," I actually said no.
Then he replied by shouting urgently, "Me need to go to the restroom! It's poops! It's an emergency!"
Repeatedly.
This was just one of those incidents that keeps me from going alone to a restaurant. So, I had to make the judgment call to leave my five-year-old sitting alone with my almost-twelve-year-old: I was not at all afraid of kidnappers, but was afraid of the fact that those two still regularly devolve into joy-filled wrestling matches that morph into tantrums and tears and the five-year-old running off!
I took the baby and Thomas to the restroom--with everyone enjoying their nice meals knowing where we were going!--and was very grateful when I came back to find the boys merely laughing a little too loudly.
3. David
Mr. David (15 months) has been so clingy lately. He wants to be in my lap much of the time, including when I'm doing my weekly lesson planning, which has made doing my chores that much harder. Thank goodness he is so cute.
Maybe it is because he is clingy or maybe it is because he is maturing, but this week David began daily climbing into a chair next to me while I teach Kindergarten and drawing with crayons. I have a new little sidekick!
This week, I realized that David has some receptive language skills I was unaware of. He responds to some commands, like, "Put the diaper in the garbage can," or "Point to Mama" (in a photo). When I say, "I am going to change my diaper," David promptly lays down on the carpet for me to do it. One evening, I said to him, "Mama is going to lay you down night-night. Come on!" and he turned tail and ran, pajama-clad, into another room and shut the door, then stood on the other side cackling at me in delight at his own joke. I think he knew where I said we were going!
David babbling and laughing
I gave David his first haircut and partway through the milestone I was wishing we had the Jewish custom of waiting until three years old to give boys their first haircut. He had a mullet, someone thought he was a girl, and his hair was getting tangled each day, but still! I miss his mullet already.
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| Before |
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| During |
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| After |
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| After |
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| The trimmings |
4. Homeschooling
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| Everyone doing penmanship |
Joseph (5) has been working on detailed coloring projects all week!
Multigenerational studying of Geography . . .
We simply love the Connecting with History and MapQuest programs!
5. Breakfast, Homeschooling Style
I am curious how large, homeschooling families handle breakfast in your homes (and for what age range of kids).
At the start of this school year, I had planned to assign my oldest three (then 11, 9, 7) to make their own breakfasts and speed straight to school while I fed the littler ones, but this did not work. Everyone cooking separate meals and bumping into each other made for more work and more mess, plus then kids weren't eating heartily enough to get through the morning.
So, I went back to cooking breakfast myself and calling everyone to the table to eat together. I might assign out help ("please cook the sausage"), but I have the breakfasts planned for the week and I follow a meal plan, which I mostly cook myself.
I've heard of some families in which the kids just grab a yogurt, eat it in two minutes, and head off to do school. How does this work? Aren't they famished the next hour? If it does work, what's your secret?
How long does breakfast take? I consider ours fairly reasonable, as from 7:00 to 8:00 we are emptying the clean dishwasher, making the meal, eating the meal, and cleaning it up.
Please do share your tips and tricks!
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| Setting out biscuits, eggs, sausage, and steel cut oatmeal |
6. Miscellaneous
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| Thomas lining up food |
One day while I was teaching, Thomas (3) asked me for the school clock and then showed me that he had drawn a clock on a whiteboard. Smart boy!
7. Bonus Reading
I came across an article this week that verbalized in a concise and straightforward manner what I have thought all these years about our homeschool being a complete lifestyle that must be supported by all our entertainment choices. I highly recommend any parent reading "A Classical Education Demands a Classical Home" by Joshua Gibbs (11/26/2018)."A classical education is offered in the classroom [my comment: or homeschool!], but home and church must prepare the student to accept it. Parents are free to encourage and fund all sorts of interests and hobbies at home which will make the work of the teacher in the classroom all but impossible. The more time a student spends on a smart phone, the less interesting class will be, for the classroom cannot be clicked away from the moment it ceases to amuse. Smartphones incentivize boredom. The more sensual and overblown the music and movies a student consumes, the more dull class will seem. A good deal of popular culture is so anti-contemplative and so bent toward intellectual oblivion, a child with a steady diet of the stuff might as well come to class drunk. A good father must teach his children not only to steward their time, but to steward their affections. While concern for school should not govern everything which goes on at home, parents should often ask, “Will this make the job of my children’s teachers easier or harder?” when their kids ask to see a certain movie or read a certain book."
My children greatly enjoy watching old movies, such as "The Miracle of Marcelino" (which is black-and-white and dubbed! clip here) or "Greyfriar's Bobby," but those start to seem boring when I let them watch too often modern, fluffy cartoons, like "Toy Story" or "The Incredibles." My children love and request classical music, but I know they won't if we let them listen to modern pop (which we don't). Our latest read-alouds to my children 7, 10, and 11 have been "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe (1719) and "Evangeline" by Henry Wadworth Longfellow (1847), but I doubt either would have been cherished as they were if I read aloud or allowed my children to read the endless tripe that is published these days. I even find that if I allow my children too many seemingly educational opportunities on a computer screen that paper texts become dull.
One night this week, as I read to the boys (3 and 5) from "Fifty Famous People" by James Baldwin (1912), as we are doing nightly right now, I found myself telling them the tale of the battle between King Richard III and King Henry: "my kingdom for a horse!" Coincidentally (or because of?), my boys were quietly and carefully setting up their own battle with Lincoln Logs as "shooting guys" and canons.
Sometimes I hear myself reading and wonder who reads to such tiny tots about these classic stories? Wouldn't typical kids rather hear about fluff this and pablum that? How could a five-year-old expect to be paying attention to stories about the Marquis de Lafayette, Daniel Defoe, or Egyptian King Psammeticus (who raised babies without language)? Yet then my little boys parrot back to me details and specific questions about the story and I am so grateful.
With our daily choices what are we accustoming our children's hearts to delight in?
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