Juggling Life and Learning

I keep hearing and seeing these commercials about supermoms. There's the TBO.com one where the mom sings about all the different practices and pets and demands on her time. There's the one with the air freshener that freshens while you take care of kids and meet with your friends and watch movies. There's even one where the mom freezes time to enjoy her cup of coffee while her children dump juice on her pristine carpet and her husband thoughtlessly wrecks the living room with his neanderthal friends.
I can relate to none of these!

Life for me is much more like that Family Guy commercial with Stewie pestering Lois. After a long day of being pecked to death by chickens (or what you call "work") I go home to the woodepecker extraordinaire. And I must admit there are evenings when I'd rather turn on Cat and the Hat and escape to my nice, quiet room than drill Lorelei on how to say "Hello" in four langauges. (Believe it or not she can actually differentiate 'Bonjour' as 'French' and "Hola' as 'Spanish')

For all of you moms out there wringing your hands and straining your sanity, it's okay. Being Super Woman sometimes means getting the kids fed and not drop-kicking them out of the window. Then again, there are days when they surprise you.

Last night, my little learner structured her very own home school experience...for both of us. As I was dragging my tired, pecked-out rear home, she chirpily demanded to go to the YMCA. "But, honey, wouldn't you rather go home and order a pizza and watch Tinker Bell?" "Maybe later, Mommy" Who is this child and where did she come from? So, fine, we'll go but I'm not going to like it.

Once there, she promptly took over the game of toss in the Kid Zone and I felt obligated to memorize some of my favorite poems in French while treadmilling (it's a word now!). I felt better and learned the first stanza to Kipling's If in French. Score one for the little monster.

Finally home, I go to plop my sweatiness on the couch and little Miss L directs me to her desk where she insists on doing 10 workbook pages of Color by Number, Letters, Basic Addition and all other sorts of goodies. Seriously, what four year old chooses schoolwork over TV? Mine! And of course, I feel like a heel loafing in front of House Crashers so I guess I could get caught up on my own homework...

Of course we finally get to the point where it bed time and can you believe that little monster wants to cuddle? I mean, what's with cuteness? Here I am, totally set on having a meaningless waste of a night and she goes and ruins it with exercise and learning and family time. Moral of the story (oh yes, there is one): Being a family sometimes means dragging each other kicking and screaming in the right direction. Did I teach her that or did she teach me?

Now if only I could remind her of that when I prying her out of bed in the morning...

Toodles from Bat Country

Making everything a learning experience

One of the first fears I had about embarking on the Home Schooling of my poor unsuspecting little girl was that I was going to somehow warp her mind and stunt her growth by not teaching her whatever it is they teach in school. After reading countless blogs and books and articles and well-meaning posts I'm a little more comfortable with the "world as a classroom".


Turns out, everything we as adults take for granted is brand-spanking new to the little monster. All of a sudden, every little errand becomes a field trip and every mundane chore a lesson. Now I'm not saying every day is a picnic or I've turned into a Duggar, I'm just saying I think I'm really going to like spending time with my daughter that doesn't revolve around taking turns on who gets to pick the TV show.


A comparison of Kindergarten Math (30 minutes)


In school: Lorelei would be given a worksheet of triangles and squares, something akin to "square, square, triangle, square, square, ______" what comes next? Lorelei walks away with a gold star and secure in the knowledge that she can keep up with the rest of the class.


At home: While making lasagna, we discuss what our favorite ingredients are, Lorelei mixes learns the names of and mixes three different kinds of cheese, pick our fresh herbs from the garden, and determine a pattern of Noodles, Cheese, Vegetables, Sauce. While the lasagna cooks, we go on a little nature walk, learn about mushroom, read street signs, identify and pick flowers and discuss her day at the baby sitter's. At the table we decide squash is better the zucchini because yellow is prettier than green but both are good because they are healthy vegetables.


Home: 1 - School: 0


Farewell from Bat Country