Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Our new schoolroom
Luke has been hard at work finishing the basement. We have a schoolroom, a sewing area, play area, and family room now! Here are the pictures of the schoolroom.
The front of the room - it's great having the whiteboard hung up instead of propped against a chair!
Ethan's desk and a second desk. Sometimes Alex sits and scribbles in a coloring book, or has a snack, or Ethan might use it for one of his stuffed animals to sit near him. Today it was a penguin sitting with him. You'll notice Ethan is rolling around on the floor on the left side of the picture.
Part of our "library" system:
Game and toy storage, as well as activities for Alex during school to help keep him occupied.
More books (some of my craft stuff is on the right; you can ignore that!):
It's so nice having a separate area for all our school stuff! We still do some of our work on the couch or in a recliner snuggled up together reading, but this is a great area! Oh, and the lighting is better than it looks - I'm not sure if it's me or the camera, but this is the best I could do.
The front of the room - it's great having the whiteboard hung up instead of propped against a chair!
Ethan's desk and a second desk. Sometimes Alex sits and scribbles in a coloring book, or has a snack, or Ethan might use it for one of his stuffed animals to sit near him. Today it was a penguin sitting with him. You'll notice Ethan is rolling around on the floor on the left side of the picture.
Part of our "library" system:
Game and toy storage, as well as activities for Alex during school to help keep him occupied.
More books (some of my craft stuff is on the right; you can ignore that!):
It's so nice having a separate area for all our school stuff! We still do some of our work on the couch or in a recliner snuggled up together reading, but this is a great area! Oh, and the lighting is better than it looks - I'm not sure if it's me or the camera, but this is the best I could do.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Some Technical Changes
Did you notice you didn't have to sign in to see our blog?
You probably remember that we made our blog private because we are a little paranoid about some of the whacko perverts out in cyberspace seeing pictures of our babies. That hasn't changed - we still are. :) But I found out recently that I could remove our URL from blogger's listings and disallow search engines from finding it. This enables anyone (technically) to read the blog, but in reality - if you don't have our web address, you'll never find it.
So what does this mean to you? Well, probably not a whole lot, if I'm honest. But, if you use a reader of any sort, you should now be able to subscribe, since we'll have a feed! If you don't use a reader, you probably won't understand that. If you read a lot of blogs and are interested in streamlining how you do it, there's a great tutorial here. If you just get on here once in a while to see pictures of some of the most adorable children in the world, you can just carry on the way you have been. Except now, of course, you won't have the extra step of signing in!
Back to your regularly scheduled life.
You probably remember that we made our blog private because we are a little paranoid about some of the whacko perverts out in cyberspace seeing pictures of our babies. That hasn't changed - we still are. :) But I found out recently that I could remove our URL from blogger's listings and disallow search engines from finding it. This enables anyone (technically) to read the blog, but in reality - if you don't have our web address, you'll never find it.
So what does this mean to you? Well, probably not a whole lot, if I'm honest. But, if you use a reader of any sort, you should now be able to subscribe, since we'll have a feed! If you don't use a reader, you probably won't understand that. If you read a lot of blogs and are interested in streamlining how you do it, there's a great tutorial here. If you just get on here once in a while to see pictures of some of the most adorable children in the world, you can just carry on the way you have been. Except now, of course, you won't have the extra step of signing in!
Back to your regularly scheduled life.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Treasure Trove
There was an ad in the local paper yesterday, advertising a garage sale where a retired school teacher was selling hundreds of children's books. We got there first thing this morning and picked up a whole bunch. Then I went back by myself this afternoon and got a bunch more. This is pretty much how Ethan spent the day:
You would not believe how disappointed he was to have to put his book down and do school.
And of course, Alex wanted in on the action, too.
You would not believe how disappointed he was to have to put his book down and do school.
And of course, Alex wanted in on the action, too.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Percentages
**Have you ever had a child say something that you wanted to be sure to remember, because you knew it would make a great story when they were older? That's the reason I'm posting this. I tend to think I'll always remember funny things they say, but the reality is ... I forget a lot.**
The first week or so of school was kind of difficult for Ethan. I think, in retrospect, that much of it was the transition from the carefree days of summer to having to sit! and hold a pencil! and write with the pencil! Not that he has to do a whole lot of any of those things - one of the benefits of homeschooling is we can be flexible in how we complete assignments - but still, it's more than he had to do over the summer.
There was also another factor at work, it seems, to account for some of his bad attitude. On Thursday of the first week, as I was making dinner, he came out of his bedroom and we had this conversation.
Ethan: I've been thinking about attention, Mama.
Me: Oh? What about attention?
Ethan: Well. It seems to me that Alex gets 98% of your attention, and I get 2%.
Me, with my mouth agape as I considered the several hours a day of one-on-one time as we completed school: Really?
Ethan: Yes, and I think it would be much more fair if Alex got 50% and I got 50%.
We continued talking a bit, because I wanted to let him know I take his concerns seriously. And I wanted to know where he came up with this idea, too, because it seemed to me to be a little ... ah, shall we say ... inaccurate. (That's much nicer than preposterous, which would be my first choice of words!)
So here's what I found out:
Changing Alex's diaper = attention
Cutting up Alex's food so he can eat = attention
Getting Alex dressed = attention
Soothing Alex when he's hurt = attention
Encouraging Alex to pick up toys with us = attention
In fact, anything that involved any type of interaction with Alex = attention
Doing school with Ethan - doesn't count as attention
Working with Ethan in any way, including having him cook/bake with me, cleaning his room together, etc - doesn't count
Reading to Ethan - doesn't count
Listening to Ethan ramble about Legos - doesn't count
There were only two things that counted as attention: making up stories together, and actually sitting down and playing together.
So yeah, if you evaluate our days that way, he's probably right.
The first week or so of school was kind of difficult for Ethan. I think, in retrospect, that much of it was the transition from the carefree days of summer to having to sit! and hold a pencil! and write with the pencil! Not that he has to do a whole lot of any of those things - one of the benefits of homeschooling is we can be flexible in how we complete assignments - but still, it's more than he had to do over the summer.
There was also another factor at work, it seems, to account for some of his bad attitude. On Thursday of the first week, as I was making dinner, he came out of his bedroom and we had this conversation.
Ethan: I've been thinking about attention, Mama.
Me: Oh? What about attention?
Ethan: Well. It seems to me that Alex gets 98% of your attention, and I get 2%.
Me, with my mouth agape as I considered the several hours a day of one-on-one time as we completed school: Really?
Ethan: Yes, and I think it would be much more fair if Alex got 50% and I got 50%.
We continued talking a bit, because I wanted to let him know I take his concerns seriously. And I wanted to know where he came up with this idea, too, because it seemed to me to be a little ... ah, shall we say ... inaccurate. (That's much nicer than preposterous, which would be my first choice of words!)
So here's what I found out:
Changing Alex's diaper = attention
Cutting up Alex's food so he can eat = attention
Getting Alex dressed = attention
Soothing Alex when he's hurt = attention
Encouraging Alex to pick up toys with us = attention
In fact, anything that involved any type of interaction with Alex = attention
Doing school with Ethan - doesn't count as attention
Working with Ethan in any way, including having him cook/bake with me, cleaning his room together, etc - doesn't count
Reading to Ethan - doesn't count
Listening to Ethan ramble about Legos - doesn't count
There were only two things that counted as attention: making up stories together, and actually sitting down and playing together.
So yeah, if you evaluate our days that way, he's probably right.
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