No carpool line.
I didn’t fully appreciate the time suckage that is the carpool line until my kids started VBS last week. I showed up 10 minutes early only to line up and sit.
And wait.
And wait.
And then merge with another long line of cars.
And wait.
I had Audrey with me and after 10 minutes of sitting and waiting, she asked, “Mommy, can you drive?”
“I can’t,” I said, “There’s a car in front of us.”
She considered that, and then asked, “Please?”
“No, I can’t drive, but thank you for using your good manners.”
After several more minutes, we finally crawled ahead a few car lengths, and I said, “There! We drove!”
She considered that, and then asked, “Mommy, can you drive far?”
Pattern blocks are one of those activities that really show the differences between my kids’ temperaments.
Luke quietly concentrates on putting each piece exactly in its space.
Chloe keeps up a running monologue about what she’s doing and makes up stories behind everything.
She calls this one “Four Fox Faces Kissing a Square.”
The biggest difference between the two is how they react when they finish.
Chloe basks in my approval…
Luke cheers for himself…
Then jumps up and down…
Then, inexplicably, roars like a lion.
Audrey, you’ll note, is not pictured. We had to put her down for her nap when we started because her favorite thing to do is knock everyone else’s patterns down.
And unfortunately, Chloe and Luke have the exact same reaction to that.
And it starts with screaming and ends with crying.
For homeschoolers, spring and summer are often planning times, as we start getting ready to order or create materials for the next school year.
Oh, who am I kidding? I never plan ahead. I don’t even plan our week, I just open my teacher’s guide when I feel like doing school and then pick something that looks like fun.
But, there are people who actually do plan ahead, so I just thought I’d let you all know that I updated my homeschool page (the link to it lives over in my sidebar under the “decaf” section).
It has what we’re studying now, as well as some of the things we’ve studied in the past, and a brief comment on what I thought about it.
And links! I linked everything to make it easy to find.
There’s not a whole lot there, since Chloe is somewhere between kindergarten and second grade, so we haven’t been doing this long.
Isn’t that first grade, you ask? (you think I don’t hear you, but I do!)
But you see, if Chloe were in public school she wouldn’t be allowed in first grade because her birthday is in November.
One of these days we’ll move to a state that requires forms and tests and stuff, and then we’ll pick a grade for her, but for now?
Eh, whatever. We do what works.
Otherwise you might not know you’ve been nominated for an award…
A big thank you to those of you who nominated me! Now go vote for me!
Besides a deep-seated violence, back to school time also brings out my insecurities.
See, I really believe that the benefits of homeschool include being able to work at the children’s current level and to study their individual interests instead of being forced to study what all the other kids are studying when they study it.
But that belief falters a bit when I start comparing my kids to other kids.
It’s terrible, and I know I shouldn’t do it, but sometimes I can’t help myself.
The kids just moved up a grade in Sunday School. Chloe is in first grade, and with her November birthday, she is one of the youngest in the class. We haven’t worked much on writing since she just can’t get herself to hold a pencil anywhere close to correctly yet. But I see the other kids writing between their little guidelines and I think, maybe I’m just not doing a good enough job.
Then I see Luke in his preschool class at Sunday School. With his November birthday, we chose to make him one of the oldest in his class. Yet there are still several kids who know all their letters and numbers and some of them can even write their names.
And I doubt myself more.
And then at home I watch Luke playing. He’s making some sort of spastic movement with his head and putting plastic trees in a large pile.
Wha???
And then it hits me.
“Luke, are you pretending to be a beaver?”
“Yeah, mommy! I’m chopping down the trees and making a lodge to live in. And this is my dam and when the danger comes I’ll slap the water with my tail.”
And I realize that it’s ok. The writing and the letters can wait because he’s learning something he loves.
What makes you doubt yourself?
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