Mumbling Gibberish

Today is the type of day that makes me feel blessed that I am able to stay at home with the kids and home school. If for no other reason, these (semi) quiet mornings when I get up before everyone else to allow myself a little space for thinking. There is only one person in this whole world that I agree with completely and I like to touch base with her on occasion.

School for us has been going steady. Jared is finally progressing in math. It almost brings tears to my eyes to write this. I have struggled so long and hard with math for him. I finally found his motivator. If he does not do well (misses more than 4) he cannot play any video games until he 'brings that score up.' Little did I know that this was the way to go. The kid works harder on math than I have ever seen. One point for mom.

The oldest is focusing on Horse Quiz Bowl. He loves random facts and cannot wait to compete in the competition this weekend. It has been fun to quiz him. I think that he will do well. He is very competitive so I have been talking to him about focusing on having fun- not worrying. The sun will rise again and set again if he doesn't win. That is such a hard concept to learn. He is also running for a State Award in horses. This required that he write a three page story, formal business letter, ten page activities log and three page picture collage. For a 14 year old, that is a lot of work. He did it quickly and well. I was impressed. Sometimes it is difficult to know whether the kids are behind, ahead or right with their peers. It seems that he is doing alright.

We took the kids into the Lego Store, American Girl Place and the aquarium. It was really fun. The kids learned a lot. I love hands-on learning. Not only was the aquarium a great learning tool- the Lego Store has upgraded and moved. It now has a pretty cool computer aided design program that the children can access. The kids seem to love it. They create their lego design on the computer and then build it. We are planning a trip back to Chicago in April and will hit the Museum of Science and Industry- Mythbusters are coming in. We will also make the trek to the Lego Store again. It is a tradition for us!

I have been struggling in the area of not comparing my kids to the other kids. As the boys are now attending Youth Group functions- there is constant opportunity for me to see them interact with the other kids and see their weaknesses. I remind myself that I see their strengths as well and they do have many. Just in the last couple of days, I have had to work hard to see my kids for exactly who they are and respect that in them.

Homeschooling has been such an amazing journey for our family. I think it is one of the best decisions my husband and I made. Believe it or not, we knew that we would home school when our oldest was about 18 mths old- that was before the middle son was adopted and long before Jacie was a 'twinkle' in any one's eye. That seems like a lifetime ago.

My duties keep calling- literally. They keep walking into my room and talking to me which makes it difficult to form coherent sentences. I had better sign off before I start mumbling gibberish and rocking back and forth. Hope that all is well for you.

~CP