Winter School

Gabe and I had a great time today. I know I kind of complained about being a stay at home mom yesterday, but today I feel like I really made the most of it. A great friend of mine is considering homeschooling her kids and she shared a link with me that had PIRATE lessons! I've always known that I'm not going to home school. No offense to people who do, I'm just not up for it. I am organized, but I'm not very consistent. In fact, this whole chore chart/earning allowance thing has made me feel quite proud and I've only been working with him on it for like 5 days!

Since I'm still off work, I thought why not peruse the site and see if they had any more nifty lessons I could download and work on with Gabe while we're home together. And, I found some great stuff! Stuff he's interested in: farming, dinosaurs, ice cream, space, etc... The materials fall right in line with the kinds of things he's learning at preschool. Matching capital letters with small letters, following and continuing patterns, and many other 5 year old activities. There are even Bible verses that go along with the lessons (see above).



You can tell from his face here that he was really loving it. I ended up buying some other materials for $10. I'm looking at it like a winter home school... kind of like summer school! I only wish I would've thought of this kind of activity sooner. It made me so happy/proud in so many ways. I was spending time with my boy. I was finding out how very smart he is. And, I was really using the time to praise and encourage him. I wasn't constantly trying to find something for him to do and he wasn't wanting to watch TV all day. TV has become a tough battle. I try really hard to limit TV time to during breakfast (we have a small under the counter TV that folds down by his breakfast seat) and right before supper while I'm cooking. Then in the evening, we try to play or do an activity together. Although tonight, we had a movie night and watched Fred2... Oh my gammit! That kid has THE most annoying voice on the planet.

I guess I'm feeling like a better, more purposeful Mom today. I was having a hard time with that. I was always feeling like I had to get this and that done and I was always trying to find something for him to do. But, today, I felt like I did it right, ya know? I felt like I made great choices as a mom. I rarely have days where I feel confident about what I'm doing. Especially the first time around. When we have a second child, I probably won't worry as much (I hope) and remember that things work out, kids bump their heads, get rashes, and sometimes have poor appetites. All concerns most first moms worry about. Today, I felt like I did pretty good.

PS: Regarding the treasure picture above, he spelled that out with the Scrabble tiles after studying it a bit with me. We sounded it out and he got it from memory and the sounds the letters make! When we went over the Bible verse together and I tried to explain what heart treasures were, he said his heart treasures were his Mom, his Dad, his Janx, and his WHOOOOOOLE family. Then I said, "What about your Lego guys?" (just to see) and he said, "oh yeah, AND my Lego guys!