Isn’t technology wonderful?

February 12, 2009


“Mommy, come here, come HERE!”.

My four-year-old son’s face was flush, and he was quivering with excitement when I walked into the front door of my sister’s home. She had been watching my three kids (plus her two) for a few hours while I brought my mother to a meeting in the city.

“Wow”, I thought. “What could have him so excited? Had my sister made something car-shaped for dinner? Had he built something amazing with Duplo blocks?”

He practically dragged me into the kitchen and showed me his cup. Full of water.

He pointed to the refrigerator and said in awe, “Water come from a fingy in there.”

All hail the mighty in-refrigerator water dispenser. To think we spent thousands of dollars making him miserable at Disney when all he needed was a fridge with perks.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids 11 Comments

Because what is missing from Valentine’s Day is a little deceit

February 10, 2009

Christmas has Santa

Easter has the Bunny

St. Patrick’s Day has Leprechauns

Valentine’s Day has. . . .the Mysterious Power of Love? Eh. . .

When Belly was a toddler, an online friend posted a Valentine’s tradition that was so easy and flexible that I knew I had to try it out. We are now in our fifth year, and now the kids expect it. You’d think I’d be better prepared for it each year.

It does involve a bit of deceit, so if you are someone who thinks Santa and his ilk are terrible lies for children to believe, you may want to stop reading now.

OK, here is what you do to make your very own Valentine’s Day Lollipop Plant:

1. A few days before Valentine’s Day, give you child a small empty flower pot.

Procrastinator version*: the night before, take your saddest looking house plant and, without letting the kids see, pull it out of the soil and throw it out into the backyard to serve as compost.

2. Let the kids decorate the outside of the pot with stickers, markers, glitter glue.

Procrastinator version*: skip this step; it is almost bedtime!

3. Once the decorations have dried, carefully fill the pot with several inches of fresh potting soil.

Procrastinator version*: search garage, basement and shed for potting soil, to no avail. Either reuse the soil that was once the life force of the dead plant now lying in your backyard, OR, go into the yard with a spoon and chip off a half-inch of hard dry dirt from the frozen ground.

4. Give your child some tiny cinnamon hearts and have him push some into the dirt. Blow a kiss and water them a little bit.

Procrastinator version*: Oops! No cinnamon hearts? Use anything sprinkly or red and hope your kid is too young to notice the difference.

5. If you have started your plant a few days before Valentine’s Day, you can make the plant start to grow over several days. The first night, cut up a few lollipop sticks into various heights. The first night, put the smallest sticks in the dirt so that the plant seems to be ‘sprouting’. The next night, replace those sticks with slightly longer sticks. . .keep this up for a few days.

Procrastinator version*: You did not start your plant a few days before Valentine’s Day.

6. The night before Valentine’s Day (Valentine’s Eve?), replace the sticks with several beautiful lollipops. Go to bed and know that you will be woken to the delighted shrieks of “it grew! it grew!”

Procrastinator version*: The night before, sneak out to the local CVS after the kids have fallen to sleep and buy the last sad bag of lollipops (which are not red, heart shaped or have anything to do with Valentine’s Day but beggars can’t be choosers). Fall asleep but wake with a jolt at 6am and realize you forgot all about the damn plant. Tiptoe down the stairs, and carefully jam some pops into the dirt. If necessary, shield the plant from view with your body as you do this so your child does not see him mother’s lame attempt at creating “magic”.

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7. Let your beloved eat lollipops before 8am. They will love you for it.

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* taken from personal experience

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me, Music n Drink n Other Hobbies 16 Comments

I’m not a quitter

February 9, 2009


A few people know that I’ve come about “this close” to giving up on homeschooling this year.

It wasn’t because of one bad day, or even a stretch of time. It was more a feeling that maybe this wasn’t such a great choice for us after all.

Some of this feeling was because this year has been one of adjustment. The biggest was the loss of a central meeting space for our large, multi-family coop. When oil prices skyrocketed, the church we were meeting in once a week (with its gym, classrooms and kitchen area) had to drop all its mid-week groups. Finding a new space that had all of these amenities (and was not occupied by preschools during the day) proved futile. And, so our group drifted apart.

There has been my ongoing struggle with Belly and math. We have switched to our third math program and, thankfully, no longer fight daily over her lessons, but she still struggles. I wonder, “is it me”?

There have been my concerns over Jilly, the “middle child” who does not have nearly the social network of my oldest. Wouldn’t she be the cutest kid in her kindergarten class? Would she be happier, less melancholy about turning six?

Then there is D, whose speech is still a concern, as is his lack of same-age playmates.

And, then, because I am no martyr, there is me. Or “ME”! People joke that I spend a lot of time on the computer, but holymotherofwhomever, I think I’d go bat-shit crazy without the internet. In other words, I do get a little twitchy from having the kids near me all day long–especially as they get older and seem to need me less for survival and more for maid service. KWIM?

BUT, things have been looking up.

We’ve fallen into a better daily rhythm and probably a more realistic school work load than what we were attempting to do in the past. I’ve learned that if it ain’t done by 1pm, it needs to wait to another day unless it involves coloring or reading. Belly is also making some small progress in math which is gratifying.

We’ve eliminated any morning activities or commitments, other than the occasional doctor appointments. Morning is for school and for my daily intake of coffee. Period.

I’ve started up a new coop with three like-minded friends. It is much smaller than our other coop, but the kids play well, I like the women and we rotate houses. We’re also in our third year of meeting with another family every week to do history projects and that, thankfully, is still going strong.

We’re trying to have more fun in the middle of the day, when kids are in school. This is perhaps the thing that Belly likes most about homeschooling: that she isn’t in a classroom until after 3pm (her friends get off the bus close to 4). On Friday, we went sledding in the middle of the afternoon and had the slope to ourselves. Tomorrow, we’re swimming midday at a newly refurbished YMCA (I call this “PE”).

Small steps in the right direction, but they are starting to add up.

Next year, I’ll have two children to report to the school district. Belly will be in 3rd grade, and Jilly will be in 1st. It won’t get any easier but I do think this homeschooling thing is starting to grow on me.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me, Homeschooling 9 Comments
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