Mom Remembers

Every morning, at the start of our homeschool (9:00 am?), all school-aged children gather for morning exercises , possibly one of the most valuable parts of our routine.  It serves many functions and in a very short amount of time.   During morning exercises, we:    * gather together and set the tone for our day's work    * listen to, recite, and sing poetry    * play games to review math concepts    * move our bodies! This is how the routine goes.  I used to start by ringing a bell but ... our bell broke.  So, now I sing a song to gather the children to the rug.  One child will light our homeschool candle and say a prayer to open the day.  Then, each child stands up and recites a verse (the same one every day for at least a month), after which I read from A Child's Garden of Verses  (a different poem every day).  On Friday, the kids pick their favorite poem from the week to hear again. ...

Sometimes, kids say the darnedest things.  And then sometimes, you know exactly where those things come from. We were getting ready to cross a busy road without a stoplight and I was holding the kids back until all the cars passed.  Carl explained my reasoning to the other kids like this: CARL:  Some of those cars are Utah  drivers.  You gotta watch out for those cars.  They are not watching out for you.

I want cheese! Soren was made out of Papa John's pizza with lots of extra marinara sauce. Carl was made out of sushi.  Mostly, the cheap stuff at the grocery store but often enough it was from Shogun, our favorite downtown sushi place. Sven was made out of Kraft macaroni (three cheese, baby!) and homemade jalepeno poppers. This baby should be made out of KFC cheese curds.  Except that KFC is closed right now!  What's a crazy pregnant woman to do?

I knew that there would be bad weeks for homeschooling.  I thought that they would be later.  Like Christmastime, around the baby's birth, or during the February doldrums.  But they hit us this October and now we are already behind on all my beautiful plans.  Some of the behind I plan to catch up on in November and some of it I have just accepted as permanent.  It's been liberating to realize that I am accountable to no one's schedule and that the kids are doing well regardless. In Kindergarten The Fisherman and the Jinni  - For the first unit of the month, Megan told a story from One Thousand and One Nights  that I am not familiar with.  She really enjoys doing ethnic fairy tales and usually ends her units with exotic cooking projects.  I was really grateful that she was responsible for Kindergarten during the most harried weeks of October, allowing the kids to have continuity while I was otherwise occupied. The Teeny Tiny Woman - For ...

Carl and Sven are playing with play sand at the table.  Soren is writing a novel "in handwriting".  Carl is pushing his sand into a mason jar, which Soren thinks is a bad idea. SOREN: If you smoosh the play sand into the jar then it will be harder to get out. CARL:  Soren, look.  [Carl turns the jar upsidedown and the sand falls easily out.] SOREN: Oops.  My hypothesis was wrong. CARL:  It was falsified.