Sick Season

I don’t know what it is, but this year, we’ve been sick a LOT. Until this past fall, it seemed like our family didn’t get sick very much. Except for Child #4 and his battles with croup, we had only one or two sick episodes per year.

We have barely been able to get through a single week in the last four months that didn’t have at least one of the kids or parents struggling with a sore throat, vomit, the “fast poops” (what the kids call diarrhea), cough, chickenpox, headaches, ear infections, or hand-foot-and-mouth disease!

I’m ready to Lysol-bomb the house and not let the kids out in mingle with others for a couple of months in an attempt to keep them well for more than a week at a time. Until then, I’m cleaning up vomitus in the mornings, making lots of honey’d tea for the sore throaters, and snuggling the snotty-nosed ear-infection youngest in my arms.

Curriculum – 2010-2011

I have a 4th & 2nd grader this year. Here are the plans:

4th Grade

Math: CLE Math 400 with supplements (Life of Fred Fractions, Singapore’s new Challenging Word Problems 3)

Language Arts: Writing Tales 1, Spell to Write and Read, review of poetry memorized for the last four years + reading poetry once per week for appreciation.

Foreign Language: Prima Latina

History/Geography: Story of the World 3 with Activity Guide, Map Skills D, Memorizing States/Capitals of the U.S.

Science: Ein-O Mechanical Science Discovery Tank, Snaptricity, and Delta Nutshells Sound Kit + ?? for a year of physics inquiry using hands-on materials.

Religion: Re-reading Children’s Bible w/ third section of the New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism #1. Incorporate lives of the saints & learning the Mass.

Music: Beginning to play the piano using Bastien Primer level materials.

2nd Grade:

Math:  A Beka Arithmetic 2 w/supplement of Singapore Challenging Word Problems 1.

Language Arts: Spell to Write and Read, Writing With Ease Level 2 (second semester), poetry review from the last three years + poetry appreciation once per week.

History, Science, and Religion will be with the older sibling with the exception of doing Map Skills B instead of D.

In addition, the 2nd grader is taking private art lessons once per week with a local artist. Both children are learning Shotokan Karate and are new Yellow Belts.

Christmas Eve Night / Christmas Day

It was cold, dark, & snowy. All the children headed to bed, some to read, some to actually sleep. I found two in the same (twin-size) bed, but decided to let them stay that way.

I wrapped the one present we have for each child from us and placed them around the base of the Christmas tree. I left the Christmas lights on when I went to bed, so St. Nicholas could find the chocolate chunk cookies & milk the children left out for him. I fed the baby, told Child #1 to turn out her light, and went to sleep myself.

The baby woke at 2 a.m. for a feeding. I checked the living room. Baby Jesus had arrived in our little creche scene. St. Nicholas had not yet arrived.

The baby was up again at 4 until around 4:30 (diaper change, food, burping, more food). Soon after, Child #2 appeared in my room to request that Child #3 be removed from her small bed. Transfer was completed and I assume St. Nicholas had arrived at the house by this point. I did not check the living room at this point because I figure Child #2 would have followed me and probably never gone back to sleep.

Child #1 was the first one up. Spouse’s work called at 7 a.m. to see if he could come in as one of the other guys couldn’t get out in the blizzard-like conditions. Spouse spent an hour attempting to get out onto a main road from our house. After digging himself out three times within two blocks, he returned in time to get ready to head to Mass. He called to let them know he couldn’t get out either, but they’d found two others that were going to try to make it in.

I confirmed with the phone message on our Church’s answering machine that services were still going to take place. It only took about thirty minutes to get everyone ready in all their snow gear and another ten to fifteen to walk the four blocks. During the time we were bundling up, the plow cleared half of our route. That was great since the stinging snow was hitting directly in our faces during that half of our trek. Children #1 & 2 walked. Children #3 & 4 were pulled in a sled. Child #5 was wrapped in one blanket and ‘slung’ in my ring-sling. Then, I wrapped another warm blanket completely around said child to keep his head out of the blowing snow and wind.

We have a little more than a foot on the ground over the top of ice. More is coming down every hour. I’m glad we don’t have to go out.

Potty Training – Week 9

It has been awhile since I updated how we have been doing on potty training. We were in despair when we passed a month of actively trying to get Child #3 to perform her peeing and pooping in the toilet instead of her pants. She really was fairly good about the liquid refuse. It almost always went into the potty. The pooping was another story.

We tried just about every trick we’d ever heard of.

- We had her pick out cute little (Tinkerbell) underwear and told her that Tinkerbell would be very sad if she was pooped in. Happened anyway.
- We bribed her. For every three days she didn’t have an “accident,” she would get to pick out a movie to watch. Didn’t work.
- We rewarded her for success. Small candies were ready to pass out for successfully pooping in the potty. They sat ungiven for weeks.
- We even tried rewarding EVERYONE for success. I read somewhere to give everyone in the house a small treat when they performed the desired behavior. Then, the theory went, the small child would want to also be rewarded and would demonstrate the desired behavior. No dice. It was pretty pitiful to hand out M&M rewards to everyone else in the house but not Child #3.

There were other things we tried. None of them worked. Each day, I would clean between one and four pairs of pooped-in underwear. It was very discouraging.

Then, suddenly, with some backsliding but not too many days of it, she finally started going poop in the toilet. It was right around Week 7. It wasn’t anything WE did. It was all her. I have been happily not cleaning poopy pants for almost two weeks.

She’s been dry during the day and night for over that amount of time. We don’t put her in an overnight diaper because she has shown incredible bladder control and amazing lengths of time of ‘holding it.’

She doesn’t normally pee during the night, but twice she has gotten up because her bladder is full. I usually hear her open her door and go help her. She heads right back to sleep.

I’m calling this one potty trained. Hooray!!

Children Behaving In Public

We had all four kids along when we picked out a replacement stove (range top/oven) recently at a large store. Our current oven has “issues” that involve kicking off randomly usually at temperatures over 350° F. It is hard to consistently cook or bake things when the oven won’t stay at temperature and beeps error codes at you even when turned off. As it is “old enough” (12-13 yrs old) to warrant replacement and we’d already tried replacing some parts, we decided to just buy a new one.

After doing some research on the internet, we headed out to touch some models in a store with our own hands. My spouse was wooed by some of the flashy things on a few of the high price models. I knew our budget and just wanted something that isn’t too fancy that will consistently work. While we were opening doors, checking buttons, and seeing if the knobs on each model are removable, the kids were nearby . . . not getting into too much trouble.

We both had to chase down wandering kids a couple of times and repeatedly tell them to “not touch” things (which was very hypocritical since we were touching things constantly). In the end, the salesperson we dealt with complimented the children on their wonderful behavior and offered us a $10 gift certificate to a nearby CANDY store so they could pick something out as a reward.

I have to balance this positive story with one from just over a year ago. I had all four kids with me and I was just trying to find some sandals for the two older kids. It had been a long morning for me and I was waiting to check out at a mall department store shoe counter. All of a sudden, a woman behind me exploded with an “Well, I NEVER!”

I turned around and she told me that my oldest had just stuck her tongue out at the woman for “no reason.” She then went on to lecture me about raising children and informed me that she had several children of her own (now grown) and NONE of THEM would ever have done such a thing. After some questioning of both the woman and my daughter, I assured the woman that I would see to it that my daughter receive a suitable punishment but did not indicate to her what it would be or when I would be administering it. She looked at me closely and then said she believed me.

Some days you feel like a nut. Some days you don’t. (I’ve definitely had both.)

The House Dog & The Wolf

I was reading Aesop’s Fables with my kids the past couple weeks. Many of them are really profound when you stop to think about them and their morals. For instance, we read the one I’m copying below. It reminded me of what we have been facing as a nation since 9/11/2001 and what we still face economically.

The House Dog & The Wolf

The moon was shining very bright one night when  lean, half-starved wolf, whose ribs were almost sticking through his skin, chanced to meet a plump, well-fed house dog. After the first compliments had been passed between them, the wolf inquired:

“How is it, cousin dog, that you look so sleek and contented? Try as I may, I can barely find enough food to keep me from starvation.”

“Alas, cousin wolf,” said the house dog, “you lead too irregular a life. Why do you not work steadily as I do?”

“I would gladly work steadily if I could only get a place,” said the wolf.

“That’s easy,” replied the dog. “Come with me to my master’s house and help me keep the thieves away at night.”

“Gladly,” said the wolf, “for as I am living in the woods I have having a sorry time of it. There is nothing like having a roof over one’s head and a bellyful of victuals always at hand.”

“Follow me,” said the dog.

While they were trotting along together the wolf spied a mark on the dog’s neck. Out of curiosity he could not forbear asking what had caused it.

“Oh, that’s nothing much,” replied the dog. “Perhaps my collar was a little tight, the collar to which my chain is fastened – “

“Chain!” cried the wolf in surprise. “You don’t mean to tell me that you are not free to rove where you please?”

“Why, not exactly,” said the dog, somewhat shamefacedly. “You see, my master thinks I am a bit fierce, and ties me up in the daytime. But he lets me run free at night. It really is very convenient for everybody. I get plenty of sleep during the day so that I can watch better at night. I really am a great favorite in the house. The master feeds me off his own plate, and the servants are continually offering me handouts from the kitchen. But wait, where are you going?”

As the wolf started back toward the forest he said: “Good night to you, my poor friend, you are welcome to your dainties – and your chains. As for me, I prefer my freedom to your fat.”

The moral of the story is “Lean freedom is better than fat slavery.“

Back to School

This summer, while waiting with my kids for swimming lessons to start, I was chatting with some of the other moms. One of them, whom I have known since middle school, was waxing eloquent and loudly about how great it was that her younger child was starting Kindergarten that fall because now she would finally have a day to herself. (She works part-time.) The part about it that was so sad, to me, was how she was loudly proclaiming in front of her son how happy she will be to get him out of her house.

Fast forward to this Christmas break. I was talking to a former co-worker of mine about a trip we plan on taking back to where we used to live. She still lives and works there, so I was getting us penciled in on her calendar. She said several times how glad she was to be going back to work soon. She elaborated that she’d been home with her two children (Kindergarten and pre-school ages) for almost two weeks and it was driving her insane. She made a point to tell one of her children, while I was on the phone with her, how Mommy can’t wait until they would be back in school and day care the very next day.

You know, I’ve already admitted to having a small case of send-the-children-off-to-school envy sometimes. But I can’t imagine being so unaware of a child’s feelings at such a young age as to tell them gleefully how much you are looking forward to not being around them soon. I will be the first to admit that in colder climates, it is hard in the winter to be cooped up in the house together all the time. Not everyone has the personality to be able to stay home with their children. By no means should most people homeschool their children, in my opinion.

But please parents, keep your feelings of joy to yourself in front of your little 5- and 6-year old. Their sorrowful little faces when they hear their moms say how great it will be to be ‘free’ of them while they are already unsure of the changes that are in store for them are just too sad.

Christmas Day

We’ve been “off” from school since last Friday. The kids have been working on crafts and making gifts for friends, relatives, and neighbors.  I have been doing some cleaning and catching bargin prices on some of our curriculum picks for next year. I’ll tell you more about those later!

I admit that the kids sleep in until 7 a.m. on most days we are in school. This has been the case also when we have been off from school. Not so on Christmas morning, though!

Much to my surprise, three of the four were awake before their father left for work at 5:15 a.m. Because of work schedules, the children didn’t see their dad at all on Christmas Eve and usually he would have left before they woke up. This meant we wouldn’t all be together until after 7 p.m. Christmas night and opening presents would have to wait until then.

However, because of their early morning wake-up, they were able to open theit gift from St. Nicholas (what we call “Santa”) before their dad left.

I had hidden the other presents so I didn’t have to keep them away from them all day. Those came out right before he arrived home and we had supper first. The kids were as patient all day as you can ask for – with only an occasional, “I CAN’T wait!” or “Can’t I open a present NOW?”

When the kids were putting away the  presents right before bed, Child #2 was picking up pieces of the generic, off-brand MagnaDoodle that Child #3 received. Two of the magnets stuck together. She pulled them apart, let them snap back together, and then laughed delightedly. She announced, “They’re ALLERGIC!”

We, her parents, laughed at this statement and her dad asked, “Are they really allergic?” She calmly unstuck them again, looked up at him, and replied, “No, not really. They’re just friends.”

Holy Hero’s Advent Adventure

At the invitation of a friend of ours, we checked out Holy Heroes at the start of Advent and signed up for their “Advent Adventure.”

The kids have really been enjoying the daily video and the coloring pages.

The daily video always starts out with one of the owner’s kids saying, “Welcome to Holy Heroes Advent Adventure. I am [child's name], one of your guides. Today we are …”

My kids do their own version and have expanded it some. They start with, “Welcome to Holy Hero’s Everything Adventure. I am [child's name], one of your guides.” They changed the name to “Everything Adventure” because they have covered Mary’s sinlessness, including her Immaculate Conception, checking the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, the wedding feast at Cana, and several other non-Advent topics. They do cover many Advent-related things like “Here is what a stable looks like.”

You have less than a week before Christmas, but perhaps you and your kids want to have a little advent adventure yourselves. Check it out! [Note:  The site is unabashedly Catholic. Keep that in mind!]

Wish More Would Have Listened

Early this morning, I called my representative’s office in Washington. My request that my congressman continue to vote “No” on the bailout bill and my comments about it were noted by the person on the other end of the line. I had to give my name, address, and telephone number – perhaps for a follow-up letter, perhaps just to make sure I really lived in the correct legislative district to be calling and expressing an opinion.

I was disappointed that the bailout bill passed, but I was not surprised. I was very glad to hear that my representative here in the mid-Central region of the country kept his “no” vote. I called his office back this afternoon to express my thanks.

Read a really great reaction of what this bill means from someone who has been warning (for years) about the economic collapse caused by (among others) the government.

So, now what? Well, Congress has not helped anything with this bill in the long-term. The hole we dug ourselves is still there. In my opinion, there is no way we can avoid reaching the bottom of the hole. The “relief” package passed today will slow our descent some, but may ultimately make the hole deeper and also may make it a longer climb out.

I was able to listen to the second half of the VP debate last night. I thought both parties did a good job of giving their stock lines and pat answers. (I liked Sarah Palin’s “Drill, baby drill.” and “Say it ain’t so, Joe.” I was glad to hear she is still trying to convince John McCain that drilling in Anwar is the right thing to do.) Overall, I was disappointed in the lack of answers and the constant pointing out of how great their running mates are.

I really hope more people look into the third party candidates. Read more about them. Consider voting for them. Libertarian Bob Barr. Independent Ralph Nader. Green Party Nominee Cynthia McKinney. Or, my favorite, Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.

If you want to know more about what Chuck Baldwin would do as President of the United States of America, view this column to read about it.