How Crunchy Are You?

Are you “crunchy?” You know, are you the “granola” type?

I never thought of myself as being a Granola Mom. I do have several friends who fit that description. However, after taking a version of this quiz a couple of years ago, I realized I’m crunchier than I thought (“Pretty Crispy”) For a different type of “crunch” factor, you can try the one here. (This one shows I’m “totally mainstream” with a 21% crunch factor.)

It sank in the other day when my mother referred to me as “Earth Momma.” She was getting her hair done by the lady who fixed mine for my wedding (oh, so many years ago). The lady said, “I just can’t imagine your daughter homeschooling.” My mom replied, “You mean, “Earth Momma?” The lady said, “Yes, I always thought she’d be a professional woman.” To which my mother replied, “Well, she is both. She’s a professional engineer. She just has a more important day-to-day job at home.” 

Ah, and that important job is calling me. I can hear one of the kids now . . .

Are Books A Distraction?

Once my children can hold something in their hand and move across the floor in any way (crawl, walk, roll), they have grabbed a book, brought it to me (or my spouse), and insisted (verbally or non-verbally) that we read it to them. My spouse & I are big readers. My oldest now loves to read. All the others (except the baby) bring books to be read aloud to.

I’m trying to start back up with homeschooling. We’re still only doing a few subjects – with the goal of ramping up to “full” homeschooling schedule in another two or three weeks. Every day, however, I realize what a challenge that will be for us right now.

Not because of the baby.

Because every time I try to get started with something (anything – dinner, sweeping, laundry, doing history/science/religion with the older two), someone will bring me a book and ask me to read to them.

And, being me, I stop and read to them. Maybe it is only a chapter. Maybe it is only a page or two. That’s why there is a broom sitting against the kitchen table with a small pile of noodles that hasn’t been swept up yet. That’s why the laundry is still in the washer and the dryer door is open – waiting to receive the clean but still wet clothes.

In our house, books are a pleasant distraction from the rest of life. They are a distraction, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Eventually, the laundry will get done. We’ll get to the school work at some point.

And, I have a confession. Sometimes, I mean only to read a chapter. But, I get into the book just as much as the kids . . . and we end up reading two or three chapters. Or sometimes, we finish the whole book in one sitting and by the time I look up from our read-aloud, lunch is almost an hour late. That’s life in our house.

Kindergarten Readiness

I know this is the wrong season for posting about “kindergarten readiness.” But this has been sitting on my computer desk for awhile and I’m finally getting around to it.

We receive a newsletter from our pediatrician’s office quarterly. There are usually articles about keeping kids healthy, preventative safety tips, and an article on a health topic (immunizations, out-patient treatments for whatever, symptoms of the most recent outbreak disease, etc.). On the back of this particular one, there was an article about “Kindergarten Readiness.”

They went into general indications your child is ready in such areas as behavior, verbal ability, and motor skills. The last paragraph was what stood out to me. See what you think:

“Remember, the object of kindergarten is not to make your child a star in the academic Olympics. It is to guide your child to the overall maturity that is needed for a solid start to a good education.”

Comments are welcome.

School Status

I planned to do no school this month. However, a couple of weeks ago, I felt really good with how we were doing with the new arrival. I thought about it and figured that starting one “fun” subject would be ok. So, we started doing history using Story of the World 2. We just started Chapter 4 on Thursday and we are going pretty slow – using my lesson plans but spreading the work out over a couple of days. This has been good since I have a LOT of books for most of these chapters, so we do read-alouds most days.

We’ve “eaten like Roman soldiers” and recently also “eaten like monks.” We’ve made our own ink and quill pens. We’re learning to draw mythical creatures from a book we checked out to see how to draw Grendel from the Beowulf story. (Child #2 is very artistic.)

This past week, we also started our religious studies. So, if I feel adventurous, we’ll add science this week. I still have a few weeks until I planned to start “full school,” so whatever we get done now is “gravy.” The kids love history & science, so they enjoy it and I still have time to keep up with the laundry, house, and feeding a newborn.