Month: February 2017

It’s 3:49 am and I have been up for hours. Yesterday we enrolled Lydia in Kindergarten. I am sad.

It started last week when I realized, as Lydia devolved into a puddle of screams during our reading session, that certain aspects of home schooling are not working. I had to face the hard reality that I think she would do better in a school environment. I feel bad because some of it is my fault for not being more patient and fun.

Mostly I am sad because (in my opinion) Lydia has a great rhythm to her life right now. She goes on one field trip a week with her school and spends another entire day at school doing fun hands on activities. She does ballet, dance, musical theater, and an hour or two of harp practice every day–and she still has time for hours and hours of play time. I am sad that we will have to trade that play time for school.

But we toured a charter school that is very close to our house today, and they could not guarantee us a spot for next year. The only way to make sure she would have a spot was to enroll her in their one kindergarten opening now. So I came home, filled out the forms, and bam!–on Monday, Lydia will start school.

I am comforted whenever I think of how our reading sessions have been going. Lydia has been making progress, but it has been so painful. I know Lydia, and she is (most of the time) her best self around other kids. She is also very respectful of adult authority (except for her parents–ha!), and I just know she will progress a whole lot faster in school.

I’m just sad at the change, I guess. I’ve learned a lot from this home schooling experiment, and I guess the good news is I could always pull her out again if things don’t go well in school. I am also excited to focus more on Mary, who actually begs me to give her reading lessons and actively wants to learn. So far I have had very little time for her because I was so focused on Lydia.

Here are some pictures from yesterday and the past couple days.

Today we had our usual crazy Tuesday. We start out with our 8am harp lesson after which I come home and feed Lydia breakfast before turning right around to drop her off at the bus for school field trip day. I then took Ammon grocery shopping while my mom stayed home with Mary (at Mary’s request). We came home, fed everyone lunch, and played with the kids until Ammon’s nap time.

During Ammon’s nap I baked a cake and then rushed to pick Lydia up from the field trip. When we got home, I rushed to get the girls in their leotards and tights before running out of the door with all of the kids to ballet. While the girls were in ballet, Ammon and I went to a different grocery store and then rushed to pick the girls up. Then we came home and made dinner to celebrate Jay and Abe’s birthday. Whew!

Karin and Jay came over for dinner, and we all had a great time visiting. I thanked Karin for all she did to raise Abe into such an ideal husband. She taught him that a woman’s place is where ever she wants it to be, and as a result, Abe has never once insinuated or stated that I need to do anything other than what I want to do. He never ever suggests I should be more regular about cooking dinner or folding laundry or tidying the house.

He just comes home, rolls up his sleeves, gets to work, and thanks me for whatever I’ve done (if I have done anything at all). I have lectured the girls that they need to find husbands who are just like their dad, but I don’t even know if that’s going to be possible.

A highlight of the day happened while I was cooking dinner. My mom started dancing with Ammon, and he loved it. The other day she danced for Mary and Ammon, and they were entranced. Ammon loved being her dance partner today.

Also, an Ammon anecdote: Ammon loves the book, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?. Karin gave me the book when Lydia was born because it used to be Abe’s obsession. The girls liked the book, but Ammon takes after Abe in that he is obsessed. Yesterday I hid the book on top of the dining table while I was snapping the ends off of green beans. I hoped he wouldn’t asked me to read the book for the fiftieth time, but he was not to be fooled. He knew the book was up on the table, and after pointing and grunting desperately for a while, he finally said (very clearly), “Mistah Bown!!!” I could hardly believe it. He barely talks at all, but it appears he can talk when desperate. Of course I gave in and read him the book (again).

Also, the girls got hungry while waiting for Karin and Jay to come, so they pretended to eat the furniture in the house. Abe has this video: