Today was Racer's 9th birthday! He got a funfetti cake with funfetti frosting. He got a little toolbox and a calculator watch from us. Turtle got him a bunch of glow sticks and Chicklette bought him a plastic breastplate. He also got a gift card to McDonalds, $9, and a pair of shoes from all the grandparents. Racer insisted on decorating his own cake. I wanted to tell him no because I think no one should have to decorate or bake their own cake for their birthday, but then I realized that was my own hangup and he really wanted to decorate it himself. I realized that letting him celebrate his birthday the way he wanted to was more important than my opinion.
On another note, I had a friend ask me today at co-op if I ever got angry or yelled at my kids. First off, I have to laugh that she was so glad that I did have my moments and surprised that she didn't think I would get upset. I'm sure every mom has her "moments." It can be hard to patiently respond to an 8-year-old telling me that he didn't want to do his math, a 6-year-old asking if she was doing her piano piece correctly, a 4-year-old dancing around simply because he wants to be near me, a 2-year-old whining for "fye" (water) and a couple babies that want something but can't tell you what. And all at the same time. I ask you, what mom has not just broken and yelled for everyone to just stop and be quiet. We all try to be loving to our children all the time and we usually do pretty well in public. But there are times, especially when you are alone at home and no one is watching. There is no reason to keep up the public face and you just lose it. I have to admit, I have gotten better as I have acquired more kids and a little bit more experience. I've learned strategies to deal with chaos, children, demands, schedules and other things that come up. I'll just put in a plug quickly for the Orange Rhino site. She has some great blog posts on not yelling and learning to respond in a more positive manner. Well, then, now I will move on to our school day.
Religion - We started memorizing the introduction to the Book of Mormon and the kids started writing it in their workbook. It's a longer passage so I am sure it will take us a little bit to get it all down. Then we had to run out the door to pick something up for DH and to get to co-op on time. We were in charge of devotional today. Of course I couldn't pick up the item because they couldn't find it, but we did make it to co-op on time.
Co-op - I get to play with the nursery kids in co-op. We have a great time. All the kids' classes made lighthouses for a craft project. We are focusing on the Northeast region of the United States and Maine has some famous lighthouses. After co-op we were finally able to pick up the lathe pieces DH ordered and we came home for lunch.
On another note, I had a friend ask me today at co-op if I ever got angry or yelled at my kids. First off, I have to laugh that she was so glad that I did have my moments and surprised that she didn't think I would get upset. I'm sure every mom has her "moments." It can be hard to patiently respond to an 8-year-old telling me that he didn't want to do his math, a 6-year-old asking if she was doing her piano piece correctly, a 4-year-old dancing around simply because he wants to be near me, a 2-year-old whining for "fye" (water) and a couple babies that want something but can't tell you what. And all at the same time. I ask you, what mom has not just broken and yelled for everyone to just stop and be quiet. We all try to be loving to our children all the time and we usually do pretty well in public. But there are times, especially when you are alone at home and no one is watching. There is no reason to keep up the public face and you just lose it. I have to admit, I have gotten better as I have acquired more kids and a little bit more experience. I've learned strategies to deal with chaos, children, demands, schedules and other things that come up. I'll just put in a plug quickly for the Orange Rhino site. She has some great blog posts on not yelling and learning to respond in a more positive manner. Well, then, now I will move on to our school day.
Religion - We started memorizing the introduction to the Book of Mormon and the kids started writing it in their workbook. It's a longer passage so I am sure it will take us a little bit to get it all down. Then we had to run out the door to pick something up for DH and to get to co-op on time. We were in charge of devotional today. Of course I couldn't pick up the item because they couldn't find it, but we did make it to co-op on time.
Co-op - I get to play with the nursery kids in co-op. We have a great time. All the kids' classes made lighthouses for a craft project. We are focusing on the Northeast region of the United States and Maine has some famous lighthouses. After co-op we were finally able to pick up the lathe pieces DH ordered and we came home for lunch.
Science - Today's science assignment was lots of fun for Racer, but not as much fun for Chicklette. They got to choose a project from the K'nex Simple Gears kit to make. They settled on the Chainsaw project and in typical Racer fashion, he took over. Next week I will have to either have them do separate projects (which I don't know if there's enough pieces for) or have them do separate parts of it. Chicklette needs to get her hands on it too. There's a CD I need to peruse also to see if it has something to help me teach.
Math - Chicklette finally finished the assignment she's been working on for two days. I'll have to check them over tonight. Racer got pretty frustrated with his assignment so I allowed him to take a break and he should be able to finish it tomorrow. They were both working on review assignments and sometimes those are a little more challenging. We did have both the kids do their Xtramath. Turtle did his reading lesson while the kids were working on their math and he did beautifully. I love the days where the reading lesson is effortless. It does help on the days where it is not quite so beautiful.
Chicklette moved on to her piano and I allowed her to move on to the next two songs. It's not her piano lesson day and I need to demonstrate the songs to her, but I felt it would be worse to be bored than to move on when she has interest and she has mastered the songs that I assigned.
Latin - I helped Chicklette review her Latin lesson and write the answers in. Then I had her copy and recopy her Latin vocabulary words from this lesson. She began wailing and saying I was too hard on her. This I ignored just as I ignored Racer's complaining later about the same assignment. Chicklette isn't retaining as well as I would like so we will have to do more review.
Well, that about does it I suppose. We didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked but I did leave Friday quite open so we should be able to make up nearly everything then.
Math - Chicklette finally finished the assignment she's been working on for two days. I'll have to check them over tonight. Racer got pretty frustrated with his assignment so I allowed him to take a break and he should be able to finish it tomorrow. They were both working on review assignments and sometimes those are a little more challenging. We did have both the kids do their Xtramath. Turtle did his reading lesson while the kids were working on their math and he did beautifully. I love the days where the reading lesson is effortless. It does help on the days where it is not quite so beautiful.
Chicklette moved on to her piano and I allowed her to move on to the next two songs. It's not her piano lesson day and I need to demonstrate the songs to her, but I felt it would be worse to be bored than to move on when she has interest and she has mastered the songs that I assigned.
Latin - I helped Chicklette review her Latin lesson and write the answers in. Then I had her copy and recopy her Latin vocabulary words from this lesson. She began wailing and saying I was too hard on her. This I ignored just as I ignored Racer's complaining later about the same assignment. Chicklette isn't retaining as well as I would like so we will have to do more review.
Well, that about does it I suppose. We didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked but I did leave Friday quite open so we should be able to make up nearly everything then.