Too Busy - 9/13/11

 

Well, as you've probably noticed, I have not been blogging every day as planned. I don't know how people do it! How do they find the time???   Lately I have been feeling SOOOOO busy! I have so much to do and not enough time in the day to get it all done! Between planning for, preparing for and doing preschool; cleaning the house when I can; trying to plan for homeschool, getting the kids registered for their online classes and getting our computers to agree to work so those classes can happen;  doing laundry now and then; thinking about bills and occasionally even paying some; planning and preparing activities for the kids in The King and I; chauffering Bella to work, school, and wherever else she needs to go; getting Scout to her voice lesson, her theater class, and Girl Scouts; thinking about our homeschool group and what we need to do for that; going to rehearsal 5 times a week for King and I; sewing some costumes for K&I in my spare time; cooking lunches and dinners; and then add in there managing blood sugars, keeping logs of blood sugars and insulin boluses given, doing site changes for Jem's pump every other day (sometimes not at the most convenient time!); scheduling doctor's appointments for Jem, Scout, and I and going to at least 1 a week; constantly having to call the pharmacy or the doctor or the insurance company in regard to one of our medications; and add a pretty constant headache to all of that, I have just not been good about keeping up with my blogging!!!   

There. I got my whining done :)

So we all have tons to do and only so much time to do it in. The kids' History teacher recommended a book once called Getting Things Done by David Allen .  I think I will have to give it a try! 

So in the meantime,  here are pics from the past few preschool days that I missed blogging on. Hopefully I can find a way to better manage my time!

I need one of these for my living room!

And now, I gotta go! Things to do, places to go, people to see! Hopefully back on track tomorrow!

Maybe :)

Z is for Zucchini - 8/23/11

Some days you just NEVER stop. Today was one of those days. We went from one activity to the next, and I actually COOKED, three meals today, not just cereal in a bowl, but actually cooked at the stove, PLUS, we made zucchini bread for letter. That is WAY too much oven time for me! I really don't like to cook.  But somehow we made it through and managed to have some fun in the process :)  The kids LOVED making zucchini bread. We got used Paula Dean's recipe. They were less enthusiastic about eating it for some reason (I thought it was pretty good - a little dry I guess, but definitely edible). But by the end of the day I was BEAT! Thank goodness for Mom's Night Out!! I needed it!

So why cook with kids?  Well, if you google this question you'll get lots of lists telling you why it's a good idea. And they are all true. But for me it boils down to these 3 things:

1.  It's fun! They love doing it and they always fondly remember when you made this or that and can't wait to do it again. Memories are important. Making school fun is important!

2.  Again, less is more. With this one activity we touched on math, life-cycles, chemistry, vocabulary, turn-taking, patience, 5-senses, physics, worked on small and large muscle development, art appreciation, alphabet, phonics, kitchen safety, and agriculture. We talked. A LOT.  How much they will retain, who knows? But they all were introduced to some new things and Scout and Jem reviewed some things they had learned before. Good stuff.

3. It encourages them to try new foods. Jem tried a bite. Not much, but no way would zucchini ever cross those lips without us making this bread. Because he went through the process of making it, he wanted to try it and see what it tasted like. He didn't love it, and that was fine, but he tried it. Win!

Child-led Learning - 8/16/11

‎"Our flexibility and willingness to follow a child's lead will allow remarkable things to happen, if we let them." - Bev Bos ...

Today made me think about the idea of "Child-led Learning."   I had some basic plans for the day as usual. Nothing set in stone. Nothing is ever set in stone for me. I know anything can happen. Someone may get sick. It may take us longer to do one thing than I planned and something else will have to get scrubbed for that day. Or maybe one activity will just totally flop. Then again, we may have to unexpectedly go out and not have time to do what I had planned. Sometimes, we get really interested in a different subject and we follow that trail instead. That is sort of what happened today. Flossie had been reading a Little Orphan Annie picture book at home and brought it to read here as well. She wanted to know if I had a video of the movie to watch. I did. With us being involved in the theater, my kids were both excited to watch the musical again, so we were all involved in sitting and watching the movie. This took up a couple of hours of our morning, and that was ok.

Freddie wasn't all that interested in the movie. He kind of off and on watched it. But during that time, he kind of did his own thing too. He got out a bunch of drawing materials and set to work creating something for his room.  Then he went on the computer for a little while. Next, he drew something with the animal markers, and then then he built a small zoo with the blocks.

In homeschooling I guess you call thins kind of a day "unschooling," - letting the kids determine what the day will look like, what kinds of learning they want to do.  I can see some value in it. I think doing it now and then is a good thing. But again, I think balance is good. Moderation. I found this interesting article at Bending the Twigs blogspot and I think this is a good summary of how I feel:

"Modern neuroscience has found that the part of the brain responsible for considering the long-term consequences of one's action, the medial prefrontal cortex, does not mature until around age 20. Children therefore lack the maturity to persevere in tasks that are unpleasant in the short-term but beneficial to them in the long run. This is where adults have the responsibility to step in and guide them.

As parents, we do not allow our children free reign in choosing their diet. Few (if any) children would choose tofu and broccoli over french fries and ice cream. Instead, we ensure that their diet meets their basic nutritional needs. Most of us do take our children's preferences into consideration when planning meals and allow a certain amount of choice. However, we set the general parameters and limit the choices to approved options.

This philosophy of taking the child's preferences into consideration while setting the general parameters to ensure basic needs are met applies to education as well as nutrition. There needs to be a balance between "child-led" and teacher-guided activities."

 Definitely something to think about. But for today, it was mostly a child-led day. And fun was had by all :)