7 Quick Takes Friday (43): Kids' Shows Worth Watching

As usual, linking up at Conversion Diary. Happy Friday, all!

Even though I made a wee bit of fun of them in this post, I actually enjoy most of the children's television shows the Agents watch. (Yes, they watch TV. I know, the horror.) Following are seven we particularly like. 

1. Charlie and Lola 

Charlie is the epitome of the patient older sibling. A great model for parents to take note of as well. The books are awesome, too. (I dare you to try reading one without a British accent. It can't be done.) Also find them on CBeebies . . . get it? BBC, backwards? We discovered the joys of CBeebies on our trip to London last spring.

2. Curious George

Love this link about The Man in the Yellow Hat and Positive Discipline. We typically have at least three CG books out of the library at any given time, too.

3. Dinosaur Train 

Dinosaurs will be one of our new topics for this upcoming homeschool semester. I'm sure the 75 online dinosaur field guide cards on the DT website will be put to good use. Agent A, in particular, is a huge dinosaur fan. Roar!

Movie break, Christmas 2010

4. Little Einsteins 

The Agents especially love when the Einsteins visit places we've also been. Agent E will comment on the classical music we listen to in the car when she recognizes what episode it is from.

5. Martha Speaks

Vocabulary lessons from a talking dog. What could be better?

6. Octonauts 

Another CBeebies show. Thanks to Captain Barnacles and his crew, Agents E and J took a huge interest in ocean life and learned facts about over 50 sea creatures. I'm sure this information will come in handy on our aquarium visit next month.

7. Word Girl

Battling evil with just the right word. Cute, but not patronizing at all. 

For more information and shows, check out the main websites for CBeebies, Disney Junior, and PBS Kids.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

24 Hours at Our House

Ever wonder what someone else's days really look like? I decided to keep track of what goes on at our house for one whole day and share it as a blog. I specifically picked a day in advance and stuck with it, because otherwise I knew I would end up either (a) waiting until a "good-to-write-about" day or (b) trying to artificially create a better-sounding hybrid day by piecing bits of different days together.

I recently added to the About section of this blog that our life is just like yours, only I'm writing everything down. Consider this my taking that literally, and sharing it with y'all. This account is from 10:00 p.m. Monday night until 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night.

Click over to Connected Mom to read the full post.

Top Ten {Tuesday}: By the Numbers

A just-for-fun post for this week's Top Ten {Tuesday}. Linking up with Angie at Many Little Blessings as usual.

1. Language I speak fluently. (Yep; just English. Epic failure in the past with attempting to learn Italian. Working on Spanish with the Agents, but barely past the Dora/Diego level.)

Agent A's first French fry (Barcelona, June 2011)

2. Years my toddler has had a passport. (He's 3 weeks old in his passport photo.)

3. Years I've had a passport. (I'm 37 in my passport photo. Ahem.)

4. Bedrooms in our house. (Agent A sleeps in the master bedroom with us. The girls share a room. The remaining two are a guest room and a family office.)

5. Loads of laundry per week (when just the Agents and I are home).

I've done this a lot

6. States I've lived in (Pennsylvania, Washington, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Florida).

7. Years I've been pregnant or breastfeeding (or both).

8. Cups of coffee/tea I drink on a typical day (3 cups of half-caff coffee in the early morning, 3 cups of green tea mid-afternoon, and 2 cups of chamomile before bed).

9. Years married to awesome Dear Hubby. (He really does rock. I'm not just saying that because he might be reading this. :-)

10. Countries I have visited (the United States, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Malta, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and the United Kingdom).

What tidbits would make your list of 10?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Torn

I feel like I should be whispering this, but sometimes I'm kind of over breastfeeding my toddler.

I know all the reasons to nurse into toddlerhood. I'm all about the child taking a role in the timing and treating his wishes respectfully. But there are always two people in the breastfeeding equation.

Of course, in general I love breastfeeding and always assumed that his weaning would be a gentle, mutually desired process. (I've written about his older sisters' weanings here.)

Agent A at six weeks, right about the time we really
got the hang of things with nursing

The thing is, though, he has been really, really demanding about nursing lately and sometimes I wish he would just start to lose interest already.

Also, unlike his sisters, he is complete twiddler. He seems to reserve this habit for when he's laying down, in the middle of the night. When nursing should be easy, quick, and peaceful. And we should both be able to drift right back to sleep. Instead I end up squirming and wide awake while he takes for.ev.er. to finish. Makes me crazy!

I know some of you are thinking, well, if you don't want to, then just stop. But it's not that easy. (If it were, I wouldn't be having mixed feelings about it, now would I?) I will not make this a traumatic experience for him. I will not simply take this away from him without warning.

Plus most of the time I still enjoy breastfeeding. That sweet affection they reserve just for you. The way they drift into sleepiness in your arms when they finish. The way they equate Momma = Milk = Love. Sigh.

These feelings are all very new for me, as by the time weaning became an issue with both Senior Agents they were down to once or twice a day and pretty much "ready" so all I had to do was provide a mild nudge of distraction. This is my first experience with considering taking specific action to help end the nursing relationship because I'm wanting to. And A is clearly not; at just over two he still nurses at least four times a day, often more. And he wakes up way more at night than the girls ever did.

Honestly, I don't even understand why I feel this way. I should be dreading the day he stops. I will never, ever get to do this again. This has been my life for over 6.5 years. Why am I not feeling more attached to it? 

Plus I keep thinking he is my last baby and he likely will wean on his own in the next six months to a year anyway, so why push it. The practical side of me thinks should at least get through this cold and flu season first, and maybe by spring he'll naturally slow down anyhow.

The most recent nursing picture I have.
This is in the airport, the day we flew back to the U.S.
Agent A is 19 months here.

To complicate matters, he has what I believe is a cavity, possibly two (don't get me started . . . another post) and we're seeing a pediatric dentist this week. Which means we may be looking at anesthesia, and dental work, and . . . why am I even considering taking his favorite source of comfort away?

As far as specifics, I know all the suggestions for how to wean a toddler (and I've shared them with others). I know all about "don't offer, don't refuse." I attempt to distract or encourage a drink of water or milk from a cup. I tell him the milk goes to sleep, too. He's not buying it.

I know, I know . . . I hear you. The reason he's not buying it is because he's not ready.

And maybe I'm not either. Truthfully, I never imagined myself here. I'm hoping there are other Mommas of nursing toddlers who can relate, and understand that it's not a matter of fear, guilt, taking charge, dependence, or any of the many other things I've heard associated with weaning an older child.

Have you purposely weaned your child? Or thought about it? Did you have conflicted feelings?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

The S Word

No other concept evokes such a visceral reaction in people who discover we homeschool than socialization. It's a complete knee-jerk response to learning that our children don't attend school. I liken it to the way folks, upon seeing a newborn, automatically sputter out "is he a good baby?" or "is she sleeping through the night?" and other nonsense. It's not their fault. Conventional wisdom is a strong force.

So allow me to state for the record: Yes, My Children Are Both Social and Socialized.

What? There's a difference? Read on . . .

social

of or relating to society or its organization

needing companionship and therefore best suited to living in communities

relating to or designed for activities in which people meet each other for pleasure

to socialize

to mix socially with others

to [make someone] behave in a way acceptable to their society

(Socialization is simply the noun derivative of the verb to socialize.)

My children relate to society. They need companionship. They live in a community. They enjoy the company of others. They are social.

My children are also capable of mingling (mixing) with others. They behave (for the most part, ahem) in a way acceptable to the society in which they live. They are socialized.

I know what you're thinking: Enough of the dictionary definition gobbledygook . . . what does it really mean?

First day of preschool, September 2010

It means that the Agents like being around other people. It means that they can relate to children their own ages as well as adults. It means that they can strike up a conversation with everyone from the librarian to the childcare workers at the YMCA to the cashier at Target.

It means they love Sunday school and can't wait to see their "church school" teacher each week. They easily jump into impromptu play time with a neighbor or another child they just met, say at an API meeting or the library children's room.

It means that despite the fact that the Agents (well, Agent E anyway) don't spend the equivalent of a full-time work week in class with other students their age, they can connect with peers, respect teachers, and feel at ease around other adults.

It means thanks for asking, but they're going to be just fine.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Perspective

You know that thing where you think you're humming along in your life, being totally mundane and normal, until you enter a conversation with someone and they look at you suspiciously, as if you have just sprouted a second head?

For me, it's often because I've just uttered the two most scandalous words ever: We homeschool.

Because then we are automatically pegged as extreme. A little weird. Untrusting of establishment. Overprotective.

Of course we don't need to play the homeschooling card to earn our reputation as outcasts. Simply being a stay-at-home parent of littles will do.

I find that we frequently encounter situations where no one else is living our particular drama. I don't feel welcome into their dialogue, because my world is so different. I don't fit. I'm out of season. I am a sundress in the middle of winter; a parka on a July day.

Another example I come across regularly is the attitude of oh, you just wait. Usually this is the response of a parent of older children or teenagers. When they're teenagers, all hormonal and crazy and defiant, you'll be longing for the no sleep, potty training, won't-hold-your-hand-in-the-parking-lot days. This part's a breeze. How I wish my kids were blah blah blah.

Really? This is helpful and supportive? Um . . . thanks?

Because even assuming it's true, that someday I too will wish for these days, what good is it doing to point it out to me? Why not instead show empathy and understanding? Were you not once right where I am now?

What our days look like now

And I wonder . . . will I do that? Will I completely forget what it is like to be lost in the crazy throes of young children and toddlers? Will I be convinced that my new day-to-day, whatever stage that happens to be, is more challenging than ever before? Will I someday have the same slightly condescending reaction to meeting a mother whose daily life is where I am today?

Or worse . . . do I do that now? When I learn a particular family does something outside the mainstream (like homeschooling for us) is my first reaction one of judgment? Do I look at new mothers, struggling with one infant or toddler and think, lady, you don't know how easy you have it. Have I completely forgotten that having one child—one small, innocent child—is hard work? Have I, just 6.5 years into motherhood, already lost perspective?

I hope instead that no matter where I am on my journey I will listen and respond with compassion and not diminish any mother's experience, no matter where she is on her journey.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

7 Quick Takes Friday (42): Weekly Wrap-Up Edition

Warning: Cheating blogger ahead. I am totally double using this post by making it seven education-related tidbits so I can link up at both Conversion Diary (for 7 Quick Takes Friday) and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers (for the Weekly Wrap-Up). Let's call it multitasking instead, okay? Also, technically it's not really a wrap-up of just this week . . . more of an update of how things are going in general. 

1. At the beginning of this homeschooling year I thought we'd stick with a rotation of four-month semesters (three each year for a year-round approach), but now I'm seeing that perhaps four, three-month semesters might work better. Especially at this point (my oldest "student" is six and a half) when most of what we work on is developing a love of learning, an interest in reading, and simply planting seeds for further exploration later on. We're just not getting that in-depth with any particular topic just yet.

2. Although, we'll probably still stretch out our current topics until just before Christmas, as we had planned. We'll also add in some discussion of how our planned travels tie everything together, as well as cover Thanksgiving and Advent and Christmas traditions. And the beginning of winter. We may be wearing shorts and t-shirts in December, but by golly we will have paper snowflakes all over our walls.

Our littlest student

3. So far our top contenders for what we will concentrate on next include space, the human body, dinosaurs, classical music, U.S. presidents, and weather. We'll likely stick with the three-primary-topics-at-a-time method, as that seems to be working. I'd also like to add in more of an emphasis on language arts, as Agent E starts to take more of an interest in sentence structure, writing, punctuation, parts of speech, cursive, etc.

4. Just when I thought we'd likely be giving up on Spanish as a course of study, at least for a while, the Agents showed a renewed interest this week. Go figure. 

5. While our average day still looks pretty much the same as when I wrote about it in August, we have added a bit of a twist: night school. This has not been intentional by any stretch of the imagination. Still, I often find myself discussing states, or sea creatures, or whatever curled up on the couch at 9:00 p.m. Or breaking out a workbook after bath time. We've been known to discuss how to tell what words are nouns as we're tucking into bed. This learning-all-the-time stuff is crazy. (In a good way, of course.)

6. Current library book count: 34. (Five of those are mine.) Eva is really getting excited about chapter books now, after I learned this little trick. (Confession: The Agents like the library a little too much. Sometimes it is seriously exhausting to take all three there by myself, and they all want to be doing different things in different directions, and never want to leave. So we go less frequently. Instead of weekly for 8-10 books, we go monthly—or every third week or so—for 25-30 books.)

7. This week is proving once again how much those unexpected advantages of homeschooling come into play all the time. Especially those days when your job description is even more demanding than usual.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Would You Accept?

You've just been offered the employment opportunity of a lifetime! 

The details:

Sometimes we drink (smoothies) in the middle of the work day

• You will be on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the next 18 years minimum.
• How busy you are will ebb and flow unpredictably depending on time of year, age of your coworkers, whether or not you have a job-sharing partner, and myriad other factors.
• No, we can't tell you specifically what those factors are, and they are subject to change at any time, without warning.
• You will be expected to fulfill any and all duties regardless of time of day, although the overnight shift should slow considerably after the first few years.
• Everyone in your department will eventually sleep all night, but not all at the same time. Until then, they may rely on you for comfort at any hour.
• Vacations and days off will be extremely limited, and often (perhaps always) you will be taking your coworkers with you anyway.
• The members of your department eat a lot and you'll be doing the majority of the food preparation, at least for the first 8-10 years. Be prepared to provide three meals a day plus snacks. Note the youngest ones may cue you for food hourly around the clock for the first several months.
• For the first 2-4 years of everyone's tenure, you will be supervising all bathroom breaks. Things could get, um, messy.
• Speaking of messy . . . you will be responsible for cleaning the whole office building, including the kitchen and bathrooms.
• You'll also be doing all the company's laundry, and consider it fair warning that some of your cohorts will go through multiple outfits per work day.
• Additional duties will include but not not be limited to driving, bathing, dressing, educating, guiding, disciplining, and arranging medical care for your entire division.

By the way . . . it pays zero. In fact, in all likelihood you will be asked to make financial sacrifices for the privilege of even considering this job.

Interested?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Update, Monday 12 November: Linking this one up as part of The Parent 'Hood blog hop, hosted by Joy in this Journey. Have a post from this week about parenting you'd like to share? Join us!

Reading Lessons

Linking up with What We're Reading Now at Christian Unschooling.

When Agent E progressed to chapter books, she would often get discouraged before she even started, although she was clearly capable of reading at that level. She would mumble there are not enough pictures, it's too many words, I can't do this. I finally figured out that all her life she had been reading books she could easily finish in one sitting. I had to tell her that now many of the books she would read she would finish more slowly, even over the course of a few days, reading a few chapters at a time. I explained to her that's just how "grown up" books usually work. She was much more relaxed and less overwhelmed after that.

This was such a light bulb moment for her. And for me.

So, what are some of those chapter books she's reading?

Tink, North of Never Land by Kiki Thorpe (A list of Disney Fairy books can be found here.)

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds by David A. Adler (More in this series can be found here. There's also a Young Cam Jansen series for younger readers.)

Arthur and the Recess Rookie by Marc Brown (More Arthur chapter books can be found here.)

My E reader

Have you checked out Scholastic's Book Wizard Tool? I know, I know . . . reading levels can be quite arbitrary and it doesn't (shouldn't?) matter, but . . . sometimes it's just nice to know these things! And it's helpful for getting ideas of similar books the Agents might be interested in.

(FWIW, the three examples above range from 50-100 pages and fall somewhere between the middle of second grade and the end of third grade.)

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

7 Quick Takes Friday (41)

As usual, linking up at Conversion Diary.

1. Agent A turned two yesterday! He's my All Saints Day baby. (Yep. Halloween candy followed by birthday cake. Every year.)

2. Took A for his two-year well visit and they checked his BMI, which was the first time a pediatrician had included that information as part of a routine appointment. I assume they'll do it for the girls at their next appointments, too. (You can find an online BMI calculator specifically for children and teens here.)

3. Had a total junior high flashback at the Y the other day . . . the spinning class (which is right behind the treadmills, where I actually was) used an 80s hair bands play list for the whole class. You know, it's kind of difficult to concentrate on the Spanish lessons pouring out of your headphones with Twisted Sister blaring in the background. We're not gonna take it! NO! We ain't gonna take it! We're not gonna take it anymooore.

The birthday boy and his Pooh

4. If you are a Disney fan and have a little one with a birthday coming up, go to DisneyJunior.com and make a birthday greeting video. We did one for A, and the Agents will likely watch it approximately 600 times in the next few days.

5. Agent J's new favorite snack is a slice of whole wheat bread (neatly centered on the plate) "garnished" with Cheerios. I think she's been paying a little too close attention to Helen Cavallo.

6. Did you take the kids trick or treating this year? Stay home and pass out candy? Avoid it all together? Since Hubby wasn't around and I haven't figured out how to clone myself yet, we went with the leave-a-bowl-of-candy-on-the-front-porch-with-a-note method of treat distribution and the Agents and I wandered the neighborhood.

7. Agent J has started to explain some of her more "interesting" behaviors with the statement, "well, that's how they do it in Juliatown." (Juliatown, in case you're wondering, is about four exits past Crazytown.)

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

A Happy Birthday Letter

Today my youngest child turns two. He is our last baby. I will never again experience the joy and the crazy of guiding a brand new person from sleepy, milk-drunk freshness to walking, talking, adventuring toddler.

I intended to write birthday letters to each of the kids each year to give to them later on. I succeeded for the first four years. (So, Agent E is six, but she only has four letters. Agent J is four, but she only has two letters.)

I did write one for Agent A last year on his first birthday, but honestly it's way shorter than his sisters' first birthday letters. (I blame that first whirlwind year of having three kids under five. How exactly did I survive that again?)

So, as I attempt to compose a note to my precious little boy on the second anniversary of his birth, what do I tell him?

(Finish reading this post over at Connected Mom.)