Media Madness: The Kid Connection

Our kids lost their media privileges for a whole week.  We're two days into this consequence now and Thursday seems like an eternity away.  I suppose it helps that our laptop is functioning like a crippled turtle right now...lessening the desire to use it in the first place.  In the meantime, our young ones have taken to reenacting their favorite shows and singing their favorite show tunes...

Josiah:  Mom, what's your favorite song from The Lion King?

Me:  Hmm, I don't know.  I like a lot of songs from that movie.  Maybe..."Can You Feel the Love Tonight"?

Josiah:  Oh, yes!  I remember that one and I remember that time a LOOOOONG time ago but I when I was still this same age and I had media, I saw that song on youtube and thought, "Mom should share this on facebook!"

It is apparent to me that our kids' childhoods hardly resemble our own.  We'd be asking questions like, "what is facebook?  what is The Lion King?  what is youtube?"  They've never known a life without these things.  I now see it as my duty to make sure our kids know the answers to our childhood questions, questions that they don't even know to ask.  We commence tomorrow morning!  Lesson #1- What is a rotary phone?  Followed by #2- What is a cassette tape and what's the pencil for?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

One thing I love about homeschooling is having the opportunity to stop, relish and learn from unexpected experiences that occur rather than having to pass those moments by.  A strict schedule or curriculum rarely affords this luxury and I'm so thankful that we can enjoy these special times.

I left one of our garden cucumbers on the dining table last night- just had one of those mommy moments where you forget to stick it back in the fridge.  Short digression: my father-in-law visited last night and we wanted to show him our cucumber-squash hybrid creation.  (What would you call that sort of thing?  A cucuash?  A squacumber?  I don't know.  Take a look at the photo posted further below and you'll see what I mean.)

Special Occasions: A Laundry Lesson

My 7 year old.  Bless him.  For some reason, my darling youngest son decided that his "Fun with Money" class today was going to be far from fun.  So, he thought he could just decide not to go.  Yeeeeaaah, I don't think so. 

I say it's time to go.  He remains seated.  Not budging.  Plenty of fussing happening, but no walking.  Little does he know that momma's not playing games.  I've told him before that I don't count.  You know, some parents will say, "If you don't...by the time I count to..."  Nuh-uh.  Not this momma.  I'm still guilty of repeating myself sometimes (I'm a work in progress) but I refuse to count.  He should also know by now that I know which buttons to push to get his attention.  In an unusually calm voice I say, "Ok.  No media for the rest of the day."  Now he's wailing and causing a scene.  "Oh, I see.  You'd rather have no media for two days."  "No, no, no!  Mommy, I'm sorry.  I'm sorry!  Do you still love me?"  I reassure him and wonder if this is a sincere question or if he's just trying to make me feel guilty...or hoping this question will relieve him of his consequence.

To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool? Part 1

**This post was written back in April.  I have other posts that I'll publish later.  For now, here's a taste.  I plan to write regularly about our homeschool journey.  For any parents out there who are on the fence or considering homeschooling, we're only 2 weeks in "officially" but I highly recommend it!  Have a blessed day!

Our family has been wrestling with this question for the past several months.  There are so many factors to consider and it is just plain hard to know what to do.

Initially, we had planned to homeschool from the very beginning.  But then our son was diagnosed with a form of high-functioning autism (Asperger's Syndrome) and so we decided at the time that the best thing for him was to send him to public school where he would have access to speech and occupational therapies as well as a more structured environment and also be immersed in a social environment at an early enough age that (hopefully) he could more easily adapt and learn to recognize social cues and respond appropriately.  Whew.  Deep breath.