Do you know what I mean? The constant spinning of one’s mind. Thought after thought after thought builds on thought after thought after thought… Free association, if you will.
The list of to-do’s… The consequences of not accomplishing the to-do’s… What NEEDS to be done? What on that list is do or die? If I don’t “do” who or what will die? Really? OMG. How will it all get done?
Then there’s the guilt. If I had managed my time better… If I had done “this” instead of “that”. I wish I had paid closer attention. I should have told he kids “NO”. I should have told the kids “NO” and made sure they listened. I should have let them help me. I can’t believe Livi will be in first grade.
Should I homeschool her? I homeschooled Cole for first grade. It was so hard. But it was so wonderful. I’m not ready for her to be at school all day. I feel so sad. I feel relieved that school starts next week. I don’t really know how I feel. I feel like crying. I don’t want her gone all day.
Continue reading ‘Thick with thought.’
when:
The phone hasn’t rung once all morning (hence the absence of guilt for not answering, which is my common practice during school time), AND we’ve gotten in some good schoolin’ by noon. Go literacy!
I commit to bringing food for something, and (unbeknownst to me at the time of committing to aforementioned commitment) everything I need is in the fridge or freezer! That rocks sumpin’ fierce.
Joel said he had a dream. He said he walked through a door and into a big room. He said that “there were a hundreds” of really big people. His choice of words was a bit less politically correct… You know, “Buddha” chubby. He said all of the people were sitting “criss-cross apple sauce” and rubbing their bellies. The people chanted, “Celebrate the tummy… Celebrate the tummy…”
As if the dream didn’t give me a good chuckle, I overheard Cole telling her brother, “I don’t celebrate the belly - I celebrate God!”
A couple of days later (today), the kids and I are reclining on the couch, finishing a book about the “First Comers” (Pilgrims) and Plymouth Rock. We learned how, in the name of remembrance of the first people who landed on/near/around the rock - Plymouth Rock was broken and moved and broken and moved and moved… Over many years people seemed to put a lot of time and energy into this physical piece of American history.
It seemed Cole thought it odd that a rock would be given so much attention… for at the end of the book, Cole inquired, “So, did people celebrate the rock?” I said, “It sure looks that way. Is it right for people to celebrate things? What is the only thing should we be celebrate?” Like Cole said when she first heard Cole’s dream, they both answered, “God”.
I have been taking Cole to our local elementary school 4 days a week. He has been going to get some extra help as a result of evaluations conducted at the end of kindergarten last spring.
When I met with the specialist at the beginning of this school year, I was very discouraged because I didn’t feel Cole needed as much help as was prescribed. I was encouraged to enroll Cole full-time, or at least for half-day because the learning plan developed for him prescribed over 2 hours of daily help.
We opted for a half-hour of reading, 4 days a week, with an additional half-hour of speech and 40 minutes of occupational therapy. It has been time consuming to keep to that time commitment. The 30 minutes actually take and hour of our school time. Though the time commitment has been challenging, I have been very appreciative that the specialists have been so willing to help this family who is daring to do their own thing…
Today was a marker day. He had been given 2 brief assesments earlier this month - both showed he was above the first-grade benchmarks for this time of year… Today his reading specialist said that she thought we could start meeting less - maybe not even at all by the end of the year. Apparently, he is almost reading at the second grade level :) I knew he was doing very well, but even better than I suspected.
He is so hungry and ready to learn. He is so inquisitive. And bless his heart - he loves homeschooling. He can’t wait for the experiments to start in science. He whizzed through his first language arts packet - passing the packet test after completing only half the packet!
The reading specialist said he is such a sponge. She is amazed at his ability to learn - once he gets it - he gets it. Period. Where homeschooling really benefits him, is we can get that extra focus time (one-on-one or just added review tailored for him) he’ll lock it in.
This is a really exciting time for us. I just see the light bulbs going on. Academically… spiritually. We have been having the most meaningful conversations about God, life… Oh, and that memory… it is impressive how quickly he memorizes his verses for AWANA. Some kids need to be prodded… almost daily he reminds me we need to work on his verses. He is just so hungry for information. I hope I can keep up with him :)
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