Week in Review

Before we started our week -- our First Week -- I anticipated a lot of things.  Crying, screaming, hiding, throwing...drinking.  I guess we probably did have a little of all of that (mostly from me, especially the drinking) but I'm really a little surprised by how little drama we had.

In fact, I think we actually had fun.  It was a homeschooling miracle.

I think the kids each learned a few things, but I probably learned more.

1)  It comes much more naturally for me to spend time with my kids engaging in literature, history, and even math than it is to play a never-ending game of My Little Ponies.  Or Spiderman.  Or Spiderman Saves the My Little Ponies from the evil Thomas the Train. Sometimes, five minutes inside of our kids' imaginations can seem like an eternity, amiright?  

2)  One mom and two kids can cover an entire day's worth of Kindergarten curriculum in under 2 hours, including plenty of tangentially-related crafts.  Such as painting "like nomads" (clearly, only the most conscientious of nomads painted using washable paint on paper bags, while wearing smocks).  

3)  My girl draws a mean goose (which starts with G, just like Grace).  

  

4)  The "only things" my son can think of that start with the same letter as his name are "Megamind" and "Metroman."  The only things.

5)  Math is more fun when you do it in pajamas.  But we all probably already knew that, if we'd ever just thought about it.  What you might not have known is how good killer whales are at addition.  

6)  My daughter has some unfortunate perfectionist tendencies and her best is never good enough for her.  My son, on the other hand, does not share this problem and his mantra appears to be "Whatever, it's no biggie."  Somehow, we've got to meet in the middle.

Most importantly, I think we undid some damage this week - damage caused in large part by a school that asked parents to forego telling their children to "Have fun" in favor of "Work hard."  

So far, at our house, I think we're managing to do both and it is lovely.