My Weekly Update

My kids started soccer this week. This is the very first time they have done any kind of organized sports. They have had 2 practices so far, and they both were smiling the whole time. It was joyful to watch them. Of course, the first practice they did not have the proper gear. After five minutes of playing, Raef cried out that he didn't want to play anymore. He had gotten wacked in the shins several times. I informed him that he did not have shin guards and that we would get them before the next practice. It seemed to placate him. He did finish the rest of the practice and had loads of fun. But today's practice went a lot more smoothly for him and he enjoyed it immensely.

On Monday we had a very nice Family Home Evening on prayer. We got some interesting comments from the kids. Raef took several minutes explaining why we pray: because there isn't a telephone that can reach that far into outerspace. It was so adorable. He was really thinking about it.

This was our first official week of school. The kids did really well and I was mostly patient. I have added some really good new curriculum that I have been very happy with so far: Math-U-See, Spelling Power, and Rosetta Stone Spanish. All three of these have been a nice addition and I look forward to seeing there progress as the weeks pass by. We are going to be doing school from Monday-Thursday and take Fridays off to clean the house and do fun things together. Violin has been going really well. Raef is working on Musette by Bach and Zach has finished with Hunter's Chorus and is now plunged into Long, Long, Ago in G Major, with a variation. They are both loving it.

I had a very sweet moment with Zach today as we wrapped up school. He sat down at the piano with me and sang some Primary songs very exuberantly: Called to Serve, Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus, Away in a Manger (he sang the harmony!), and Stars Were Gleaming. When Raef finished his spelling, he came and joined us for the last few. These are the moments you savor as a mother.

I had Zach read to me from McGuffey's and he did a couple stories. Raef read 3 easy pages from the McGuffey Primer. I am taking a step back with him again since I am getting resistance. I am going to try to ease him back into reading, and in the mean time just saturate him with stories I will read to him. He really likes for me to read to him. I read "Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar" and they were both fascinated with it. This book will be good to read to them a lot so that they can understand the factorial principle (i.e. 10!=10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1). I get to learn lots of stuff too.

I found this wonderful language program that is based on the Suzuki Method. The kids memorize poems. They are really easy to start with and then get progressively harder. For example at one point they will learn "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll. This week they learned 3 poems: Ooey Gooey, Celery, and another one and I can't remember the title. As they memorize, so do I. I love that. I want to have beautiful language in my head too. It is great.

There is so much to learn...we are having a lot of fun together.

This is now my official educational philosophy: Drip, drip, drip...trickle, trickle, trickle.

It really works. I didn't do as much history as I would have liked to do and we only did an art class once. So next week, I know I need to get those in more as well.

Confessions of a Shrill and Witchy Mom...

Is it possible to spend too much time with your kids? I have come to this conclusion...

YES!!!!!

I think I am sick of them. They are sick of me. They are sick of each other. We need a break from each other.

Tomorrow I am going to an open house for a private school. I hope it goes well because sending them away for 6 hours a day, 4 days a week is sounding more and more appealing every day. I always promised myself that if I didn't think I could hack it with them or if I felt they were getting short-changed then I would not hesitate to put them in school. The time has come. I yell at them all the time and I have an incredibly short fuse. They don't even listen to me because I am always yapping at them. I wouldn't listen to me either. So, I really can't blame them. Plus there are just way too many hours in a day, if you ask me. Also, Rinar travels a lot now with his job so I am really with them all the time.

With that said, I think I could probably still handle it just fine. However, throw an adorable little baby into the mix and I am a mess, plain and simple.

(My husband just saw this blog and he rolled his eyes at me!)

I am kind of hoping that with a good two year break or so, I might be re-energized to homeschool them again. Then again, I might like it so much that I will never go back. Who can really say?

Is there anything you want to confess?

Contrary to popular belief (hahaha), I don't have it all together, I can be a really mean person (which I absolutely despise about myself), and sometimes I really want to kill my kids.

But please give me some credit: I put my adorable kids into timeout and in a short span of 3 minutes (yes, I had a stopwatch and it was almost exactly 3 minutes), Zach was able to murder my adorable rooster that I had searched for for at least a year. Yep, it was on my end table looking all cute as anything and he was doing flips and knocked it over. So, Lindsay I can relate to the whole serving dish lid getting destroyed. Today I lost a special family member of the domesticated farm variety, and I didn't even get mad. I didn't blow my top, scream at him, nothing. I just said...

That was my favorite rooster.