Homeschooling for 3

Despite my family’s bout with sicknesses this past month, my daughter recovered enough to be able to participate in her first Children’s Choir. The kids did a stupendous job and got a standing ovation for their two performances. The choir is made up of children seven years to twelve years of age. A couple of the “old” children (you know 13-15 year olds) helped out by playing their instruments and being a part of the drama re-enactment.

I was really happy for Jade because, although she was initially nervous, the love and applause that she received as part of this group had her walking a bit taller and showing a bit more confidence in her abilities. She learned what being part of a team was and the responsibility that it entailed. A few times (post illness) she tried to wiggle out of going to rehearsal, but (being the mean mommy) she went anyway. She made a few friends on her own and told me to sign her up for the next one!

I also envy her because I would have loved being in a children’s choir. My religious background didn’t have choirs or anything, so I was just out of luck. But maybe when Michael gets a little bit older and more comfortable with other people, I’ll see about signing up for the adult choir. In the meantime, I have volunteered my services to the Children’s Ministry group so that’ll be a great stepping stone for me as I acclimate to this totally new religous environment. I love the spirit of the church and the people are really great and I’m so glad that I’m there.

Now, back to Jade. Jade instructed her sister on the basic operation of the choir and wants me to sign her up too. Since Alaya is only four years old, that’s not going to happen right now. Actually, although she wasn’t in the official choir, the preschoolers up to kindergarten did get to sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and participate in “Jesus — What a Wonderful Child”. Alaya looked lovely, but she wasn’t prepared to have all those eyes looking at her. (She’s going through her shy phase right now). So, I guess they were unofficial members of the group.

It’s getting late, so Proud Momma signing off.

My daughter, Jade, joined the children’s choir last month, but was out sick with the plague with the rest of my household for much of their rehearsal time. We had the CD and I practiced with her at home, so the choirmaster allowed her to rejoin the group tonight. They really sound good. This is my first experience with choirs, and I must say I was very impressed with how everything functions.

Secretly, I am interested in joining the adult choir, but I can’t do it right now because Mr. Michael won’t let anyone hold him, and its hard to sing when your arms are full. .

I’m also very happy that Jade has started making friends on the choir. We’ve only been attending church for the last three months, but we’re now starting to fit into the group a bit more comfortably. Growing up as a JW, I never realized how much warmth can come from a church. (We were taught that the church is one of the unknowing tools of Satan, so you can imagine what I imagined it would be like as a child!)

Anyway, we have more rehearsal tomorrow and a pizza party afterwards, so I’m heading off to bed. The moment of truth will be on Sunday when they perform for both services. I’ll make sure I have plenty of batteries to take some pictures to share.

Well, besides learning that a 7 year old can cry for 45 minutes because her brain won’t let her think (??) I learned a few things in history today. We are doing Roman history, starting with the Pax Romana era. It’s such a shame that the Caesars after Octavian were crazier than bedbugs. If you ever get a chance, you really should read (or listen to) “The Twelve Caesars” by Suetonius. It’s quite entertaining (if you can forget the people who lost their lives due to the insanity, greed and viciousness of the Caesars.) Anyway, I learned that the manger is actually a feeding trough. Now, I know that seems silly, but I never really gave much thought as to what kind of “crib” Jesus was put into . I guess I thought that “manger” was another word for barn or something. Well, anyway we learned about the birth of Christianity in terms of the Roman Empire.

I also discovered that the word “pig” can drive a 4-year old to tears when she’s doing her phonics. I’m not too sympathetic since she had already correctly identified the middle vowel in “big” and “wig”. So, beware the evil “pig” word. We do a combination of things for her reading skills. She knows all of the letter sounds, but is reluctant to use this knowledge when we’re doing schoolwork. I use “Earobics”, ClicknKids, Scholastic and just a bunch of books that interest her. My main frustration with her is that she thinks she can read through a psychic connection with the written word. It is not unusual to see her staring out the window, at the ceiling, at her fingertips and everywhere except the book! I think children like her are what drives adults to drink …

While going over the chapters on Rome and Christianity I was directed to this great website for teaching children (and okay, adults too) about art. The site is called the National Gallery of Art and they have a kids section that allows them to create their own masterpieces and “work” with different materials to create different forms of art. You can judge it for yourself by visiting http://www.nga.gov/kids/kids.htm. It’s really neat, and since I’m not an artsy person, a perfect place to explore and learn.

It’ll be interesting to see what new lessons I learn tomorrow. Maybe Michael won’t spend the morning trying to eat the dog’s food or drown the cat with the pet water dish. Now wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace?

My kids and I have been cooped up in the house (with the exception of driving my husband to the bus stop and back) for almost two weeks and I can’t wait until we can resume our normal lives again. We were all sick and then my oldest daughter came down with a rash that looked like the measles. It turns out that it was 5th disease (which is a cousin to the measles). So, since I don’t like to make other people sick, my husband and I decided that it was best to do the quarantine period. So now I’m losing my mind.

This morning my daughter announces that she isn’t going to eat because she wants to starve and go live with God. I explained to her that God gave us stewardship over our bodies and we’re supposed to take the best care that we can, so I didn’t think he’d let her visit him if she hurt her body. Then she tells me that she can’t be in our family because she’s not talented. After that didn’t elicit enough sympathy (I guess), that she wanted to go to an orphanage to wait for another family to adopt her. So after about 45 minutes of crying she decided that she was just having a bad day. So, you can imagine that I’m really looking forward to her version of PMS since she has drama in her blood. (By the way, she not only ate her breakfast, she chased that down with a Gogurt, 2 slices of pizza, 2 bowls of spaghetti and some other snacks. I guess that she decided eating wasn’t a bad thing).

I think it’s really a case of being cooped up too long in one place. Her sister, Alaya, was wonderfully supportive of Jade’s madness and entertained herself most of the morning. Right now she’s working on her first needlepoint project. She’s doing very well, especially considering that she’s only 4. This afternoon I had Jade do her craft project and threw in some homework for good measure. My son needs a rubber room to bounce around in, but in lieu of that we spent the day making sure that he makes it to 14 months. He’s decided that he likes the telephone and can’t wait to say “hi” to whomever is on the telephone. Unfortunately, he likes to hang up on the people to whom he is speaking.

It’s hilarious that people think that homeschoolers sit in the house all day — we can’t wait to get back to the running around that normally encompasses our lives. If I had to stay inside all day, every day with these people someone would be carting me away as I sing the theme song from Sailor Moon!

Another thing that I learned while being under quarantine is the wonderful program called Mentoring for Free (http://pat.mentoringforfree.com). It is a program designed to help people who work from home or have a network marketing business that they are working on the side. The program is truly free (yeah!) and my mentor Pat is awesome.

They have seminars on everything from advertising ideas to building a good spiritual (not based any particular religion) base of operation. I signed up because I felt that I was being overwhelmed, and that is a very unfamiliar feeling for me. So, I took a chance and visited Pat’s site. I still wasn’t sure if I would like the program until I attended a seminar this past Wednesday. One of the “textbooks” that is used is a book by Napoleon Hill called “Think and Grow Rich”. They cover a chapter a week and each person submits what that chapter means in their lives and how they plan to use the lessons that they’ve learned. I know it sounds hokey, but by the end of the telephone call I was impressed. So, I’ll be doing some homework this weekend so that I can participate fully next week.

One thing that busy mothers have to be careful about is draining their inner resources dry while they manage their households. I was very guilty of that, especially of late. So, between the recharge I get from church and my mentoring sessions I will get from Mentoring for Free, I should be able to perform at a higher level of activity with less stress. God knows that if you decide to homeschool you’ll need lots and lots of energy.

Now I think that I’d better get my last hour of sleep before the usual suspects start lobbying for breakfast …

Over the past few weeks of being a doctor and patient, I have had a lot of time to think. And oh those thinks that I thought …

I recognized that washing dishes manually is great for therapy. My kitchen sink is having a major leaking problem (the joint that connects the two pipes has a hole the size of Moby Dick’s blow hole), so we use a basin, wash the dishes and dump the water elsewhere. I’ve been using my dishwasher almost exclusively for over ten years. So, the idea of washing dishes by hand was not initially a pleasant thought. But as I wash the dishes (with Clorox) 3+ times a day, I look out my window and think thoughts. And here are some of the thoughts I thunk (okay, now I’m being silly) …

One of the problems that people have today come from not having time to think. While I was washing dishes (and only took me about 15 minutes to wash/dry/put away the things) I realized that the dishwasher hadn’t really saved me as much time as I thought it had. I also realized that I clean my dishes more thoroughly than the dishwasher. Yes, you can just pack up the dishwasher all day and run it through it’s paces later that night, but it doesn’t free up my mental time at all. When I’m washing dishes I can’t do anything but wash dishes and think. When I use the dishwasher, I spend time fiddling with the placement of the dishes, and then I’m off doing something else that doesn’t allow meditation time.

While washing dishes I reconciled myself to the fact that most of my blood-relatives will never understand me, so why bother trying to explain myself any longer. I realized that the “help” I was getting from these same relatives was actually poisoning my mind and spirit. They were (although probably well-meaning) instilling their fears into my heart. They were undermining my belief in my husband with their statements on why I need to commute to NYC to earn more money so that my husband wouldn’t have to work so hard. Now, if you knew my husband you’d understand that is a provider. He is the type of person that will do what needs to be done to meet the needs of his family without complaint. He wants me to work with the kids and leave the money issues to him. My relatives were actually starting us to have cross words about my returning to work and I don’t even want to work outside the home! (If only you could have seen his face when I inquired about job openings at Wal-Mart!)

Thank God that the pipe broke. With that extra 45 minutes of washing dishes per day I was able to understand what my chosen role is and why I’m doing what I do. I also realized that I was short-changing my kids by spending so much time worrying about how to increase my income to help my husband maintain our household. So, one day while washing dishes I decided that we needed to cook together, like we did before the layoffs and other financial mishaps happened.

I have regained my enjoyment of my children. We’re cooking together, I’m teaching them to do needlecrafts and making learning fun again. Before this epiphany, I was feeling pressure to drum up more virtual assistant business and trying to recreate my corporate salary at the expense of my heartfelt goals and ambitions. Now, I am only concerned with working with my current clients. I’m not worrying about getting new clients or working the network marketing spot right now. God has provided me with a great husband who takes care of me. And we’ve survived before on less, so I refuse to worry about things that don’t fit into our family worldview.

So, the next time you have a sticky situation to work out, try some good old dishwashing or other repetitious manual labor.

Well, its’ been awhile since I got a chance to put anything on the blog. The month of December is going to be renamed “The Month of Disease”. It has been one thing after another. All of the “women” in the house have sinus infections (that includes me!), my son had Fifth’s Disease, which my oldest daughter contracted last week. It was a “wonderful” side disease from her sinus infection.

My mother is going to drive me to drink. When the kids had colds last month she started on her mantra about how I must be doing something wrong because the children keep getting sick. Maybe my house isn’t clean enough or I need to get rid of the animals. My sister’s advice is to send the kids to school (?) so that I can give the house a thorough cleaning, thus preventing colds. Now, the last time I checked elementary school is the breeding ground for every disease known to man and the children are the best vectors for these germs ever invented. But of course, this homeschooling must be the problem.

Sometimes I think that the economy downslide must be caused by homeschooling — everything else is!

The upside of this enforced isolation has been the time it has given me to think and ponder my options. Am I doing things the best way possible? How can I be more efficient with homeschooling, working, family, etc.? Am I a terrible wife because my husband commutes to NYC and I stay home with the kids? Should I return to work so that we’ll be able to take more vacations and have lots of stuff to show for it? Should my extended family shut up and get a life?

In my next blog, I will expound on those questions and reveal a secret about myself that I didn’t know I had until I spent a few days manually washing dishes.

Okay, maybe not joy, but I did get a really good book that has helped me keep my sanity while everyone in my house (including me!) is sick. It’s a book by Debbie Macomber. It’s a nice cozy, perfect for someone who’s head is trying to separate from the body. But seriously, this book was entertaining and light reading. It centered around a knitting shop, its proprietor and the students that she picks up along the way to teach about knitting.

I love to crochet (I wish I had time to actually do it !) and I do cross stitch (stamped — I can’t seem to count correctly! LOL!), embroidery, needlepoint and a little knitting. The book has a crafting quote from professional knitters for each chapter and I found many of them to be true. I especially liked the one by Morgan Hinks that says “Knitting goes with us; it calms us.” When I actually had time on my hands (now I have neither hands nor time thanks to the children), crocheting a blanket or someone would completely de-stress me, even when the pattern wasn’t coming out the exact way that I envisioned it.

The book reminded me of the joys of craftmanship, and specifically, the relaxing tonic of needlework. So, today I called a local knitting store and found out information on classes for me and my daughters. So, if I can pay off some bills it looks like we’ll be going to knitting class in January. I think it’s a great gift/skill to give young children (male or female) because it occupies the hands and mind with something that can bring joy to themselves and others. I’d rather they spent 6 hours knitting/crocheting versus 6 hours playing video games.

So, if you’re under stress, pick up some knitting/crochet needles and wind down.

You know, I started blogging as a way to express my thoughts, keep my sanity and have a little fun. But sometimes, blogging seems to be the last thing that I’m able to do. I was really proud of my little musings that I was putting up on a daily basis. Then the plague(s) came to visit and I rarely have a free moment to think, let alone write!

But, just as with homeschooling, sometimes we make things entirely more complicated than it needs to be. Last night, I realized that blogging isn’t my job, it’s my hobby. And with all hobbies, sometimes you have more time for it than others. So, I’m giving myself a break and not breaking out into apologies for not posting regularly, as was my original intention. Instead I’m congratulating myself on retaining the few brain cells that are left in order to write this. One day everyone will be healthy again and I can really enjoy blogging.

And I hope that you avoid the repeated colds that my family seems to be suffering through this fall. And at the rate these colds have been attacking us, maybe someone will find a way to plug into my head to get my “phantom” blogs posted online. Now, that would be cool!