Decluttering

We are taking two weeks off school – from the end of our formal school year and before starting our ‘light’ summer schedule. During this time, I am attempting to declutter the house. We “clean” the house on a regular basis and “pick up” the house even more often. However, there is just too much stuff in the house.

I started in my bedroom a week ago. The first day, the progress was amazing. Visually, you could see the work I did. For the next couple of days, it didn’t look like I had accomplished much else because the “big stuff” was taken care of and I was working on eliminating the smaller items that build up into junk piles.

I moved onto the kitchen. When I work on counters, you can see progress and it is so motivating. When I work on cabinets, there isn’t as much visual feedback, so it can seem to drag on or that I didn’t get much done. So, I have been interspersing cabinets and counter tops for the best self-motivating effect.

I have several of the worst cabinets yet to go and the worst counter top. I’m tackling some of them today with the already-done areas to show me what is truly possible.

The goal is that as each area is decluttered (and cleaned), it will be kept clean (and decluttered) as part of the daily routine. We will see how that goes once we start back up a school schedule.

After the kitchen comes the dining/living room (with the large school materials area) and the toy closet. I don’t think I will have a chance to get to the other closets or kid rooms during this break. I do still have to cook, clean, and keep the kids out of trouble in between the decluttering.

My spouse told me I should have taken before and after photos, but I have them in my mind still. I’d rather just keep the ‘after’ image in my mind daily as we all endeavor to keep them in good shape.

A place for everything and everything in its place!

Potty Training – Week 2

We are into week #2 with potty training Child #3. After two days with no success, we ran into a string of great days (5-7) with one or no accidents. There was only one snag. This child would wait until I put her into a diaper for the night and then poop in it.

By the time Day 8 came around, she couldn’t always hold the poop until the night diaper was put on, so we’ve had a string of days with poop in the underwear. In fact, last night she pooped twice in her underwear within a span of about three hours. She has YET to poop in the potty. She is doing well with peeing in the potty – although she averages about one (peeing) accident a day still if I don’t remind her to go periodically.

She is usually dry come morning, although if she drinks a LOT of water and then stays up for an hour or two, she has been known to be soaking wet around 10 p.m. She doesn’t yet want to actually get up, go to the bathroom, take her diaper off, pee, and then come to me to get the diaper put back on. This is not a big deal at this point.

So, I would say she is 1/3 potty trained as we end day 11 of this saga.

Potty Training – Day 4

So, Child #3 is older than any of the other kids (so far) when attempting potty training. Well, we’ve tried it several other times, but each time was so unsuccessful that we gave up. It was a readiness thing.

But, for the past couple of months, I have known this child was ready. The child was just not willing. Frustrating.

Armed with the threat that this child will not be going to the pool with us if not potty trained, I started again on Thursday. I knew my spouse would be off work for several days after that and that I would have some ‘back up’ help for Days 2 – 6 or so. This is important because I lose focus and sometimes forget about the child who will leak all over the floor without a reminder.

Anyway, I picked starting when spouse was at work because the first day is always really ugly. And it was. Wet, wet, wet, sopping, dripping. Horrible.

The problem was that Day 2 was the same way. Two days. No successes. Nothing. Nada.

Day 3 was very similar up until nap time. I put Child #3 in a diaper with the instructions to “poop.” About 20 minutes later, Child #3 announced that a change was necessary. I KNEW it! This child CAN do it – and was just waiting for the security of the diaper to do it in. (My spouse took this as a very depressing event and was ready to give up again. Not me. This was my proof that this child was READY to potty train.) Shortly after, we had success #1 on the potty (pee). After a long dry break, we had success #2 right before bed.

So, I started Day 4 knowing it is one step forward and two back. Strangely, we only had one “oops” today and it was late in the day. This child can sit and pee on demand, but will not poop on the potty yet. Also, there is not yet any idea of the “feel the urge, hold it, run for the potty” trick. It is all based on timing of the requests by the parents.

We will continue on. The pool opens in less than a week. It will be harder with ’school’ going on. We are just doing testing, so it won’t be as tough as a “normal” school week to fit in potty breaks.

Middle of the Night Request

It is not unusual to have Child #2 visit me in the middle of the night. Usually, it is to tell me she needs to go potty because she thinks it is better to ask than just to use the potty and “wake up Daddy.” (I have tried to explain to her that I am going to always tell her to go use the potty and adding verbage will only increase the chances of waking up Daddy, but she does still occasionally do this.) Sometimes, it is a water bottle that needs to be refilled or “freshened.” But last night was different.

Child #2 came in and after I acknowledged her, she said, “Can I have a toothpick or a needle?”

I was puzzled. Splinter? Something stuck in her teeth? It was 3:30 a.m. and knowing the huge difference between the usage of these two devices, I asked for clarification.

“My nose is stuffed up and I want to clean it out.”

Ahhh. As we headed for a tissue box, I gently explained that neither a toothpick or a needle would be appropriate. I led her through blowing her nose (one nostril at a time, then both together) and sent her back to her room with another tissue.

I wouldn’t want to think of what would have happened if I would have just given her a toothpick without asking why. *OUCH*

She reports that she feels fine today. We will see if that is the beginning of a cold or just a fluke. (Probably, it is the latter.)

Winding Down The School Year & Field Trip Update

Well, we made it to the first field trip of the week, but had to skip the second. (We had two sick!) We were able to hit the third field trip and all had a wonderful time. My spouse used the time while we were all out of the house to reroute some plumbing that involves the main water line. He was also able to get a TON of other things done because we made sure we were gone long enough that there would be water available when we got home!

We are all looking forward to the “end” of formal school work for this school year. We have only one more “official” week of regular work and then testing week comes. That means I have only one week and two weekends to write my “finals” in science, history, and religion! I’ve started scribbling history questions down but have not looked at the others. Better get cracking, eh?!

We’ll take a week off and then start up with “schooling light” for the summer. Oldest will be starting Growing With Grammar 3 and Writing With Ease 2. We will also play some math games or work on flash cards for 10-15 minutes several times a week.

Child #2 will do some light math and phonics work – the nature of which changes depending on the day you ask.

Math: We are trying to cement into her brain written two-digit numerical symbols (such as 34 or 79). She struggles and the concept isn’t coming quickly. Math games and lots of dot-to-dots may be in order.

Language Arts: We may just work on handwriting using sidewalk chalk again this summer. She loves it and I can sneak in reminders of what the phonogram sounds are at the same time. We’ll see.

Field Trips

We are entering our home stretch for the 2008-2009 homeschooling year. Our official last day of school is Memorial Day, but the last week is a “testing” week where once you get tested in a subject, you don’t have to do it again. The days get shorter & shorter as there are fewer and fewer subjects on which to be tested.

Anyway, going into this final few weeks, I find myself faced with numerous field trip opportunities. After pondering each one individually and as a group, I’ve decided that some things are meant to be enjoyed!

To heck with my schedule and trying to fit in more spelling lists or a few more math lessons!

We are going on three field trips this coming week. That is, as long as the kids aren’t sick and they aren’t behaving horribly, we are going on THREE field trips. I’m still going to be able to get (morning) schooling in on one of the days, so I’m only cutting our school week down from four days to two and a half. Still, for I-Must-Stay-On-Schedule Me, that’s pretty ballsy.

Keep in mind:
- We still plan on finishing the history & science curriculum plans I have.
- We are finishing up our last planned chapter in Religion and then we’ll just review during the time we have left.
- I’m so far behind in my plan for older dd’s spelling, it isn’t funny. However, she’s doing so badly on her weekly tests that I don’t know that it matters how many more lists we do this year.
- We already started next year’s math books, so I’m not too worried about our pace there.