Leave them alone to play

I used to pride myself on my kids ability to make believe and play with just about nothing but the great outdoors or indoors.  Kids don't need very much to be happy and content.  Mostly they don't need to be in contact with adults constantly to be content.

Our family does have the luxury of living in the middle of ten acres of over half woods and some meadow.  Ever since our oldest was a small child, I can remember putting a sand box outside the living room window and our toddler basically lived in that sandbox while I  read a book and saw her head bobbing around.  She didn't care where I was as she was in her little world of imagination.  She would play for hours and then......I would read to her and she would take her nap....and then start the cycle all over again.

We have nine children total, which isn't necessarily relative to to the topic, but all of them have basically disappeared to their play land for most of their free time.  As small children they were loaded with free time.  Countless people have commented to me at one time or another the kids ability to just be content by themselves without my involvement.

Last week, my second to last child, took me on a delightful romp through our woods.   She showed me all her favorite haunts which frankly I wasn't aware existed.   My seeming neglect or lack of supervision, produced forts which were in their third or fourth stage of redesign by her and her sibs.   Her older sibs had also built and rebuilt forts in the woods.   She described the walking bridge they had created at the bottom of slippery hill and then showed me the remains of a foundation I didn't even know existed after twenty four years of living here!  This bridge had also undergone renovations as some logs rot you know.

I loved how she reminisced about her years in the woods.  It was a world to me that perhaps I can be sorry I wasn't as aware of but on the other hand it is their world.  When I dismiss the kids from their home educated world they frankly stop school in my world and then enter their own school of play.

Another area she described as one of her favorites for all the mushrooms they find there.  She is seven mind you, and the mushroom world is one of her favorites!   Where is MY mushroom world!?   I need a mushroom world!   This world will last her young life.  It can extend through the knowledge gained in observation into her adult life. She experiences things most people will never ever have a chance to experience, mainly because she was given the chance to play and explore on her own and with her sibs.

Lately the collaborative playing has been as Minute Men fighting the British all over the yard.  The book we read together is now live action in the yard without my meddling.  I pondered meddling when the Minute Men started bickering together but I thought better of it and left them to their own devices.

For all the panicking I've done through my parenting years as to whether I am teaching them everything I 'should' I really needn't worry too much about it.  My kids are thriving, know how to work hard, and have so many childhood tales of their adventures.  When they are released from my clutches of reading, math, etc., they disappear into their world for hours and hours.  I am happy for them. My fifteen year old still swings on the swing set and loves it.

So.....I encourage parents to encourage free play time outside as you can.  I know some people don't have that luxury due to apartment living, city living, so go camping!  Get out of sterile plugged in lives and get the kids outside to play with what is there.

And the kids were happy

With the help of my doctor, I had a revelation this week about how to reduce my stress and the rest of the family's stress.  I have grown to highly dislike Monday's.  Monday evenings are fine with either church or band rehearsal and being able to walk away from a day loaded with stress but the day itself usually makes me want to rip patches of hair out.  So......he mentioned an idea in this random conversation, of structuring Monday's to only include the easiest things which do not require tedious one on one work.  Eureka!  I thought about that and we are only going to read books aloud and practice our instruments and......that's it.  If a kid wants to play a little 'catch up' from years of my caring for elders then they can but......not with me unless I'm up to it.

  Our weekends are usually full of activities both for the kids, and then husband I try to spend some time on projects or visiting family and friends.   No one seems to look forward to the reality of Mondays.  I'm emotionally tapped out and overwhelmed.  I still have a few kids not reading as well as I would like and then writing ability needs attention with others.  We whittle away at this each day and it consumes our lives.  I'm determined to quietly be done around two each day and being ok with whatever we accomplished.  We need time to breathe and not be on school work duty all the time.

This afternoon I was with one of my kids at the dentist and two moms were discussing how exhausted their kids were with homework til eleven or twelve at night!   Yikes.  When was childhood robbed by all this schoolwork?   I don't want all this stress all day for my kids.   On Thursday we finished around two for everyone and everyone went outside and used the swing set and hammock and romped in the woods.  I heard my 15 year old exclaim that she hadn't swung on the swing set for forever.  Sigh.  Sounds like we have been oppressed.  Really.  I don't want to take their childhood away from them by obsessing over the amount of work they've gotten done.  I'm now switching gears to a regular routine with some things like practicing, math, reading instruction and then accepting whichever kids get some work done with me the rest of the day.    This is predictably happier.  I will know I'm done mid-afternoon and they will experience some freedom each day.   Phew.  I hope I can make this a lasting plan.

Learning together and not panicking together

There are all these subjects I'm supposed to get to with my crowd at home.   I personally just want them to know how to learn.  It is a challenge not to panic.  I know I don't want to sign my name on a diploma which does not include the bases covered so there in lies the challenge.  I truly believe that if kids acquire the skills of curiosity and how to find out information then they will be able to do whatever is laid before them.

I'm currently puzzling over how to cover he sciences even though they know a lot just by experience. Math seems to shadow everything for attention.  Grrrrrr.   Apologia is really college level and very time consuming.  I suppose I could pick out some of the chapters and not feel pressured into doing it all.  If the student has an affinity for the sciences then they can forge ahead.  I do not remember science being that in depth in high school so why kill the day going nuts over this time.  I'm thinking this through while writing as time is of a premium for me.  

I am fighting the panic as I have two kids still working on transitioning to being more confident readers and an older kid who struggles with approaching directions on his math and grammar lessons and I need him to gain confidence in those areas.  It......can......get.......overwhelming.  

We love our group time reading books together and I think everyone would love to just stay there.   Perhaps biology needs to become a family project in order to get it done.  Why not.  We can hang together with the sciences and get through.   I think I'm going to give this thought a whirl.  The younger kids love learning so I can't magi be they would be turned off by this.  I want a plan which requires more hands on experience I think.  If I could find an older text book it probably would just move along better than Apologia.  Why do we all use Apologia as if more is better for our young people.   Sigh.  I will never get the kids through all that is expected if we have to do it perfectly.

This is just me thinking this through.

Building blocks of Home Educating

Teaching your little people requires patience and viewing little bits of progress as the recipe to success and even fun times between the parent and the child. With a wee little one, the time that is taken to teach them to sit through a board book and finally stop flipping the pages, leads to being able to sit through all of the book.  The child's attention span increases as the level of complexity of a book increases.  This is NOT twaddle but learning.

Math for a little involves beginning with board books and all of life during the day.  Simple counting of things like stairs, stuffed animals, blocks going on a block tower is math.  Counting peas and potatoes.  You don't have to be neurotic about it but there are opportunities to ease kids into listening, learning, and most importantly the ability to sit still and pay attention.  Do little people HAVE to sit still?   No, but it seems to me that even those kids who are defined as hyperactive, can be trained to temper their wiggles bit by bit as the parent cranks up the time paying attention slowly, having patience to let time pass and attention increase.

What a parent shouldn't do is expect their little people to go from never sitting in anyone's lap listening to stories to instantaneously expecting them to be able to listen to chapter books.  That is unrealistic.     It is similar to learning an instrument.   You begin at the beginning, learning notes and practicing and it takes time to make progress.

Hope this pondering is helpful to someone.  I just think it is wise to break down the learning process so that learning is just a natural thing.  More later......

Lowering Expectations

The best homeschool convention talk I ever went to was from a lady who spoke on how we need to lower our expectations for our schooling endeavors.  Less is more. ( I restarted blogging as a mom once said that she learned a lot from m blog back when I wrote more regularly.)  I think every home educator feels the panic that they think they need to cram in as many subjects as possible AND be some sort of house keeping wonder people.  I know I have deceived myself into thinking this was possible.

How to implement structure of less in my book is to actually have structure to the day.  I mentioned in a previous post the course of my day going in a regular order of Catechesis, to read aloud time, history reading and discussion then breaking into phonics, writing and older kids working on their math and practicing.  This is the rhythm of each day.  We get stuff done.  I still get tempted by other sources to implement but I have to tell myself "NO!"   Sticking to the tasks at hand is a must or I start getting very irritable and frustrated and the immediate reaction of the kids is to scatter to the four winds.

Unschooling's only appeal to me is to instill a love of learning.  I'm sure I will have talked about so many topics, philosophical musings, theological chats, truths of life as they proceed in living their different stages and choices, that I will surely sleep well in my old age.  I do wonder how I will keep everything straight as more stages of my life and theirs come along but hanging onto living this day in faith in my vocations is more the obvious solution.  Simplify and routine just solve a Miriam of stresses.  I cannot say enough to guard your time for the sake of family sanity.   If someone suggests some twaddle activity consider the loss to the time available.  24 hours is all we get and it can be anxiety ridden or stepped through as a matter of course.  All I desire is peace in my family and a handle on my children worrying more about their own choices and running from the temptation to compare.

More later.

Calendars may seem obvious

Calendars may seem obvious to the born organized but they are not obvious to me in parenting the home educated child.   I take pride, too much pride, in bumping along through school life, so if you read that last post and thought "well duh", then you are not challenged like I am to teach calendar organization.

It has been a week now and it is slowly coming to them and to me how this calendar tool can be used.   I have made VERY reasonable requests on their daily routine so far and asked them to simply check their stuff off when it is complete.   Hmmmm....    so far they are not taking me seriously enough.   I now have added that if they get everything done for that day, to put a sticker at the top of that day.   When they ask to do special things, we can take a look at how things have been going along the way and see what is reasonable.   All things fun always seem reasonable to them.

We had a check in last night and it was apparent that it was hard for them to get much done from their list.   We have more talking to do and of course I will reinforce those areas which are getting done.   Slow and steady will win the race.  

Structure and calendars

I personally am not the most structured person.   Unfortunately for me, I don't think structure is optional for the kids.   Pondering the plethora of age levels living under my roof and all the stages of development going on, from dreaming of retirement, to not quite potty trained and all the teenage behavior in between, is pushing the envelope with me to insist on calendars and more routine in the house.   I thought it was good enough to simply get done what we could get done but am realizing how there is only one of me and that the older kiddos need to learn how to use a calendar and take more responsibility for their own lives.  

I cannot begin to explain the dragging of feet and their blaming me for not knowing what they can do next in their home educated journey or in helping around the house.   Helping is not an option either.    I have visions of faces coming at me asking me questions in my not so distant past.   I am going to attempt to have calendar, goal making meetings weekly and try to make it fun.   That lovely phrase in probably all parenting/teacher books is that kids like to know what is expected of them.   Even though I feel I have given them what is expected, I suppose it is too wishy washy for them and black and white check lists will help.   I will have to have a fight with my own 'laid back' self to persevere with this.  

Extinguishing whining will be a whole different goal but not really.   I think I am going to have them track their whining on the calendar to see how that is going for them.   Can I do this????   Hopefully.   Stay tuned.   Perhaps I will have my blog keep me more accountable on this one......

Critical thinking

Overwhelm.   Keep plugging along.   One of my older kids is weak on critical thought.   I suggested to him that he read mystery books and work himself up to more difficult reading.   I started this post before he tried a mystery book and now I can see where the book I chose was too difficult for him.   So basically methodically building up his stamina is yet another item on my tick list to keep chasing after. I can also see that my random self needs to work on preparing some activities ahead of time for kids to work on.   The amount of time wasted being interrupted by kids who need my attention can be down right maddening.   I know I would make a terrible classroom teacher as preparation for cute activities kills me.   But my kids love them just like the rest of the kid world.  I need to do this.  

My other activities for critical thought include cross word puzzles, word searches, riddles, and other strategy games.   My biggest challenge is NOT getting overwhelmed by it all and NOT getting distracted by other temptations.
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At least three of my kids need total silence and no bouncing, screaming children about.   I can keep the oldest kids on task for at least several hours working on writing, grammar and instruction.   When we break apart to work on separate levels of math, life breaks down here.   My energy lasts only about one more hour and then it is a push to get anything else accomplished.   I suppose I need to just be happy with whatever extra school work gets done in the afternoon.  

This is all rambling on teaching and endurance with bunches of kids in toe.  

More on simplifying

Can I make life any simpler or do I make it more complicated???????    Nine kids.   God has given nine kiddos to the hubby and I and each one of them would like some of my time usually every day.   Staying home as much as possible is my new reminder for myself.   If I lose focus by having tons of appointments etc., then I can't stay home and focus.   They are mostly all on different levels.   My mind keeps a tick list of their strengths and weakness and I try to help each child  keep their focus on them.   I am surprised my brain doesn't blow up on some days.   

When the older kids were young, I had all of these awesome ideals of my hopes and dreams for homeschooling my kids.   Many times I wanted to throw in the towel.   Throwing in the towel amounted to having several days or weeks of discontent and then figuring out how to get everyone back on task, my mind to quit obsessing and feeling sorry for myself, and.....stay home.  There would have been nothing wrong with throwing in the towel btw, but our options here are pretty limited.   

One child has piano.   Two boys have Boy Scouts.   Several have Catechism classes and I do not compromise on church as there I find peace and hope in Word and Sacrament    This leaves little to no time to socialize or go to do much for fun.   I can either gnash my teeth and lament how I can't have 'fun' or forget that and carry on.     It just isn't fun to come home to chaos.   These are the kids God gave me and the hubby and home and this is what I do.   My advice to self is to run away from this computer as much as possible, get up and do what I am given to do and try not to make my life more complicated.   

We do occasionally do fun things but they are usually with part or all of the family.   We went skiing two weeks ago.  The kids go to friends homes to play and goof off.    I went to a symphony concert with my mom in Chicago last Friday.   We had some friends over at various times over the weekend.  One set we see once a year and the rest were children who......played with the kids.    It seems spacing out fun and having significant chunks of hunker down time is the way for me to actually be half way successful at doing this mom and teaching thing.   Then clinging to Christ and the forgiveness of sins is of course the most helpful......but I have to remember that fact too.....thus church is a priority.   Onward.   

Writing

My head is wrapping itself more and more around how exactly to teach the kids writing skills.   I peaked at my last post months ago and saw immediately that I failed in proofreading and I am sure there are more mistakes if I looked hard enough.   So now my goal is to have the kids write a response to a question every day, when we can pull this off, and for me to write with them.   It worked beautifully last week and they are eager to write.   They also looked astonished at my responses.   A musician learns much from example as do artists and of course mathematicians.   Even my own lame attempts will give us all something to share together.   The anticipation on their faces of reading and hearing each others writing was sweet.   If I had my way I would work with the kids like this all day.   I wouldn't go to appointments or worry about what was for dinner.   It is awesome to connect with their thinking and think together.   The older students writing requires stating clear reasons and backing up of their thinking in their writing and not making assumptions.   The process is harder.   I hope that we can spend this spring hammering away at this.  Sigh.  

What do we teach them?

Today during a piano thingie, (not a competition but don't know what to call it), I had a long talk with another mom and the election came up as I was on my soap box of what IS taught to our kids in school.   I am reading a book about the Japanese Americans who were put into captivity in suspicion of their nationality after Pearl Harbor.   The book is written from the first hand accounts of the people who lived here before and after Pearl Harbor.   Ironically one of the victims told how they thoroughly they were taught the Constitution and what was great about the freedom afforded to all men in American no matter what race or religion.    And then.....after Pearl Harbor that all changed and it was not brought up in the schools, at least not immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  

So the mom and I were truly wondering what is taught now in the schools.   We both home educate but two of her kids are in school and she could not really say what is mentioned concerning our government.   She feels school is taught to the test nowadays.   My own mantra for my kids is to teach them how to think.   Ask questions.   How do we do this if the test is the most important thing?  How do I teach my kids to understand their freedoms.   I feel I have done a poor job myself for them and for myself.   The best conversations have come from watching the news and reading news articles to them.   Discussing history and what has happened in the past.   Many generations have failed in practicing the principals laid out by the Constitution.   That sin thing   bunch will always be by our sinful nature a mixed up.   I teach by living and talking with my kids.   We do *book* work, but we also do a lot of talking.   The parents involvement in explaining all of the book work on the Constitution seems to be the key to educating.   I am rambling again, but remembering how much we teach to tests, even home educators, is a wake up call to teach our children to think.   Ask them lots of questions to prick their brains to think.   Listen to both sides of political issues and ask questions.   Ask your friends which you agree with questions to increase understanding.

 I suppose the answer to the question, what should we teach them, is to teach them to ask questions and to listen.    I already drive them nuts with this, but will continue on the path and perhaps direct their thoughts to knowing a bit more about their government.  

Staying home more

Now that my in-laws are moved to a better situation for everyone, I need to guard my time and calendar from trips out of the house with vigilance.   Every time I have to leave it is as if I have thrown the whole day away.    My hubby is working three hours away for three days of the week right now and that will probably become the norm.    We home educate......that might require being home.   I hate how it is assumed since my kids are at home that their appointments can be made any time of the day.   With dad away and then mom is away.....ugh.  Does not work.   I have been thinking much about the benefit to the kids to just be home with them and the dividends are small children who are more settled and secure and older kids who are also more secure and not weaseling out of their responsibilities.   More later......

Study sessions

Can I remember to do this again?   I took the middle kids to the library to work specifically on their math and give them immediate feedback.   They got a bunch done and it was time well used.   I have the greatest difficulty setting patterns to do the same thing more than a few times as life will somehow get in the way.   Call it restarting night school again for the family.   We didn't keep that up as long as I would have liked last year as there just simply is not room for us to find a space to do this without distractions.   Once or twice a week should help.  It is hard to have the little ones with at the library and get anything done with the older ones so perhaps this will work for awhile.  

Why was I worried???????

Once upon a time, I had a little boy who was slow to learn to read, didn't know his colors until he was at least 6, couldn't count to 40 to save his life until.....8???   This is what my memory remembers.   Bookish work was very tedious and confusing.  He was very much picked on.   Social was a challenge.  

 I also have a bunch of other memories of this same boy.   This is the same boy who after we toured the U.S. North Carolina, when he was about five years old, built a model of it complete with floors, bunks and a galley.   It was very cool.   He worked diligently and carefully.   The same boy searched for hours on end for fossils in the driveway, pinned bugs for 4H,  He taught himself how to blacksmith, built huge forts in the woods, studied antique tools and life back in the day till he could probably teach a course.   All of those things were amazing to us but we were frightened of facing academia.   They were an issue for him too.   Tests.   Yuck.  

We chose to home educate mainly because of our dear son.   He most likely would have been put in some sort of special ed class.   Well.......this same boy now works for the same company as Charley as a technician and in the course of one year has become an expert and is teaching seasoned technicians what he does and how.   He traveled to Detroit yesterday to spend a few days training other people.   His dad describes him as brilliant and amazing and well liked by everyone.   He has no technicians certificate but teaches those who are getting one.   He is 19 and younger than all of them.   Just a little bit proud of my boy.  

Why was I worried????

Kids and helplessness

Kids learning how to do things for themselves is an obvious part of parenting.   Nagging or painful pulling of their bluff.   I have a few kids who have struggled greatly with following the directions in their school work so that they might actually complete it in a reasonable amount of time.   Yesterday it became quite clear that one of the children in question had a complete strategy in play to see if he could get everyone else to do his homework by asking THEM questions about how to do the problems.   The self discipline to study his work and understand it for himself and my teaching him.....or forcing him.....to follow through with these skills, is pretty tedious at best.   To teach this lovely skill, known as helping yourself with your homework and how to study, requires my body to be still and near by to continually point him to how he can solve his own problems by reading and researching and then studying the concept till he completely understands it.  

My house is a wreck, my small people are starving for attention, and once again I am puzzling over how to help the little people survive while I push the envelope with older child  to help himself.   I might be doing other things while said student is struggling with studying and avoiding the easiest route to success as he has it engrained in him to die many deaths rather than simply use the index and the resources online to review his math skills.   Exhausting..........I guess he sees it as a battle of the wills and I sit in wait to wield my will of NO.....look it up darling child.   (If I have patches of hair missing, you now know the reason).  

Take courage parents, one and all!   Don't do your children's homework!   Send them packing to the avenues which will help them learn what they need to do. It might mean you don't have a company ready house and your meals are lacking for a while but....the rewards.....better be sweet.     This child now has a teacher for his math who isn't ME, and learning how to ask the teacher questions rather than the rest of the family is one of THE most tedious parts of this of all.  

I write all this down so that maybe if I look at my blog I won't lose sight of the goal......independent thinking!!!!    Now I should stop writing and perhaps go clean off a surface or make some sort of egg something for the kids brains to feed off  and supercharge their brains!   Onward!  

Purposefully slowing down.....even more.

I think we are succeeding in slowing down.   I am taking this whole week to work on schedule and expectations which are reasonable and fit better with my slow demeanor lately.   I do not like to rush and be bombarded by many a human at once.   I am a wimp where rapid questions fly.   I've said that before.  

Monday we went through ALL of the kids subjects and weeded out every single book which did not even appear likely to happen.   Those are all hiding in the basement as I planned before.   I left each of my students/kids with two to three things to work on and have hanging over their head so to speak.   They thought we were going to do everything at once; spelling, math, grammar, writing, reading, science etc......not.   I can't see the sense in taking on too much at once and getting none of it done.   I would love to push everyone to get all of their math done for the school year by Christmas.   That would be awesome.   Perhaps I will just call them done at that point if I am brave enough and then spend all of the spring semester playing with history and reading books together.   That sounds delightful.

We braved the library today and hope to return.    It will help if I can 'train' Evan the two year old to sit for books for longer periods of time.   He was fascinated with the long row of couches and the beautiful window sills   They were much like an obstacle course for him and he was loving it.   Slowing down and not hyper spazzing at him will mean taking a breath and baby steps in listening to books for us both.   Perhaps there will be days when we visit the library when we will have to make abrupt departures.   I am sure there will be.   I would like to go there more often this year, especially since going there will alleviate temptations of all of us to be distracted by the junk in our house.   It was easier to come home today after having time at the library since books suddenly became more interesting to them all.  

A little visit accomplished way more than I intended.   Slowing down and living makes things easier to bear with all the kiddos.   Leaving for an evening spin on my bike was also far less stressful.   Hope we can keep this up and I can remember the goal.  

Simpler and simpler

Charted out the week for the coming school year and I see that there are about 18 realistic hours per week to devote to individual or group attention to the kiddo.   How to use the time is the question.   It seems the best thing to do in order to both relieve stress and guilt and eventually get something done, is to lay out the possibilities of subjects we can work on and then take a deep breath and make some sort of decision.  

I started reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" to my eleven year old.   I was asked by my mother-in-law why I was reading to her since she should be reading to me.   The explanation again was that the amount of learning we get from the conversations we have is exponential compared to any sort of text book I might do with her.   That book in particular is very rich in information between the lines, that in the first chapter alone we talked for over an hour as we progressed through.   Win.  

I will most likely need to do more of this sort of learning this year with the kids as breathing alone around here is a challenge at best at times.   I enjoy this sort of time with them anyway.   Now to science out what that will be and resist the temptation to compare myself to the overachiever moms in my life.  

Antiscreamotics

This is the flip side of yelling at kids to *get them* to stop doing whatever they are doing which is frustrating.   My younger kids were getting more and more antsy and screaming and whining more and more in the last few months.   It was admittedly hard to listen to.    What I saw happening was that the younger kids were being left in the dust as schooling with the older children got better and better.   This is a challenge of homeschooling a large age span.   Small children do get more whiny and scream the more there isn't time for them.  

I jokingly asked our doctor if he had a prescription for Antiscreamotics.    Well, my own medicine for the little peeps was to recognize how their buckets were not getting filled.   A concerted effort to spend time with the younger ones even if it is more difficult to get things done has actually helped eliminate the screaming.   Snuggling with their little selves, reading to them, gardening with them,singing hymns with them and even taking one of them with on errands has gone a long way to lower their own frustrations.  

I am a question asker too.   Asking even small questions of the child such as whether they would like to pour their cereal or if they would like me to do it for them.    (Trying to think of an example).   If they are on errands with me, just talking to them about what we see and listening to their jabbering.   These conversations go a long way towards calming their screaming muscle.   Oh.....here is another example which just happened.   Three year old, "Mom, I am done with my banana."   Me, "Now what do you with it?"  Ingrid, "Put it in the trash can."    "Yes."

A recent conversation with one of middlin' kids was about hearing that they are doing something right.   Their grumpy seems to go away just like the little ones,  when they hear what they are doing right and how we are proud of them and love them.    Honestly just the simple declaration of loving them helps both you and the kids.   You and anyone for that matter.    As sinful people there is the sad irony that it is a lot easier to let our family know what they are doing wrong rather than telling them how proud we are of them, that we love them, and also what they are doing right.   

These sort of things are my prescription of Antiscreamotics.   Thanks be to God for Christ's love and forgiveness for US even when we are sinful through and through.  

Outside the box

I am now into the stage of spring where I am doing my best to hang onto some school work happening around here.   Thinking outside the box means keeping the younger ones happy and interested while the older ones plug along with their grammar and math etc.   The final sprint to the end is in sight and perhaps it would be better to value what has gotten accomplished this year rather than despair of all the interruptions.   I am pulled in way too many directions right now and keeping my sanity is a challenge.   Please remember to have the 9 year old to read more on his own and not just with the mom so he makes progress.    Please remember to keep kids plowing ahead in their history reading.   Please......plant the garden right after you have the boys prepare the area for plowing.   Weed and plant the flower seeds to save money on annuals before it is too late.   Weed.   Did I mention weeding? 

My eyes drifted up and saw the piano and remembered I need to remember to get it tuned.   The tuned piano will make it live longer.   It means I have to remember the tuner is coming.   I might want someone to make sure no little critters found their way in it since the last time the tuner comes.   I hate that when that happens.   Critters love pianos and I live in a 150 year old house so critters are a part of life. 

Biking - I will be He Woman soon as I have decided to begin pulling the bike trailer so I actually get to go biking.   The kids get up too early so one or two of the youngest will be coming with me.   It will make the ride a bit more challenging and hopefully the kids will enjoy the ride. 

Computer is being yanked away so rambling is done for today.

Read to Me

I have had the pleasure of discovering the fun of having my kids read books to ME!   Not the kids who are learning to read, although we do that too, but the older kids.    I have wanted them to work on their ability to read aloud and their fluency anyway so my third dear son Martin came up with the idea to read Harry Potter to me.   I am going to encourage more of this behavior as it was very sweet and I enjoyed listening to the story.    It helps me to work with him on his vocabulary a bit and it is also endearing.  

Last night Cecilia and I hit the hay (my hay) at eight o'clock ish after spending an hour with Benjamin who was working on  his reading (a wee bit tedious at times).   I was too tired to read anymore of my own book so she perused my Nook library and peppered me with questions about what the books were about.   She finally settled on reading Aesop's fables and I suggested she read them to me as I drifted off to LaLa land.   She did and we had some nice discussions as to the point of each little tale.   It was sweet and sometimes funny.   She kept telling my about how the Rocky and Bullwinkle series told these same stories.   Yay, Rocky and Bullwinkle for assisting the education of my children.   I guess I will give her the second set for her birthday next Saturday.   It has been in my closet for over a year.  

Anywho, I am enjoying this activity more than I expected and hopefully the  younger ones will see this as something to look forward to.   My nest is the best nest for reading and snuggling with the kiddos.