Monday, August 31

THE JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS WITH ONE STEP

You may have noticed a few changes on my blog, but I was in need of a makeover, so I changed a few things. It's a woman's prerogative, you know. One of the things I changed that I should tell you about right away, is that I have changed my children's on-line names. My oldest child is now called M (simply because it is the first letter in his name), H is my middle son, and E is the youngest. It made sense to change this because M no longer skateboards, which makes calling him Skaterboy irrelevant. Truthseeker isn't always as truth seeking as he once was, and Thumbody is still working on giving up his thumb, but at 5 doesn't really like being referred to on-line (not that he even realizes this) as Thumbody.

Today was our first day of school, and E's first day of kindergarten. He was so excited to start, that he got up early before the other kids, and insisted on starting right away. He loved it. Every little bit of it. The coloring, drawing lines, making his name out of clothespins. Wasn't kindergarten the most fun ever? I remember it fondly, I think. Kindergarten and the 6th grade. I had the best teacher. She had us memorizing poetry, and singing all the old songs every day. I remember drawing lots of pictures, and writing poetry over top of them. So beautiful. Listening to nature programs on the radio, and doing narrations of them. Very Charlotte Mason, I must say, even for the early 80's. If she were alive today, I would ask her if she was ever influenced by Charlotte Mason. Of course back then, I didn't even know who Charlotte Mason was, much less care. Funny thing is that my memory remembers the most from that year in 6th grade, more than any other year in school. I have a friend who I went to school with, that also uses a lot of Charlotte Mason in her homeschool. I should ask her sometime if she feels the same way as I do, about our 6th grade class back in 1980. About 14 years ago I got the chance to see my old teacher at a square dance my Dad was calling at. I got to tell her what a great teacher I thought she was. She seemed very humbled. I'm not sure if she is still alive or not. But my memories of her and her way of teaching has stayed with me all these years, and has definitely helped influence my career choice later in life, and the way I teach today.

The kids stayed on schedule pretty well today, and we were done shortly before 3 p.m., which is about the same time as the public schools let out. I am trying my hand at teaching the children Spanish this year. I took 2 years of it in HS. and surprisingly it's coming back quite well. At least the pronunciation so far. This week they are learning the Spanish alphabet, and !Bienvenidos! Which means welcome. The first exclamation point is supposed to be upside down because it is a greeting, but I can't find it on the keyboard. It's probably here somewhere though, because I believe that most keyboards are created multi-lingual.

So glad that M is home from Missouri. He had a great time, and was able to see my favorite fun uncle and aunt that were visiting while he was there. Mom and Dad brought M home late Friday night, and my grandma came too. We had such a nice weekend together. Saturday, Mom, Grandma, and I went to the $1 a bag book sale at the library. Such fun to find old children's books for our home library. The kids already have some favorites they want read again and again. We then went uptown to the Arts and Balloon festival. Mom, Grandma, and I went to the wine tasting tent, and you would have thought we were all girlfriends the way we were sipping each other's wine, so we could taste all the different kinds. We even got to try pumpkin wine. Mom snuck some out of the tent in my purse so Dad could try some. He stayed on the sidewalk with the kids. It really was a lot of fun. The kids got to tie dye t-shirts, and make a few crafts. H tried bungee jumping (the safe way) and loved it. I say safe because there are bungees on either side, and a trampoline underneath you, so you bounce as high as you are comfortable going. He did get pretty high. That night I took my parents to a BBQ at a friend's house, that lives across from the airport. Her and her husband are pilots. The hot air balloon launch was taking place Saturday night at the airport, and we were able to see it all from her front lawn. It was quite spectacular, with all the balloons lit up in the twilight of the evening. Very fun night as well. Sunday the went to church with us, and then mom decided she wanted to color my hair, so I let her. She had gotten a haircut (very short) the day before at a local beauty shop. and wanted me to highlight her hair too. So we spent time Saturday doing each other's hair. It was time for them to leave all too soon. Dad was wonderful and reinstalled our bedroom door that Scott and I didn't do a very good job installing (it was up, but it wasn't plumb), and then he fixed our screen door latch that had broken. Last time he was up he fixed our dishwasher. I feel bad that when he's on vacation, my house keeps him busy, and he never charges us. Such a great Dad I have! Well, it is half past midnight, and tomorrow is a full day of school again, so I need to go to bed. Scott is working a 12 hour shift tonight, and won't be home until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. The Little's are in bed with me, which should make an interesting night of tossing and turning for me. Maybe I'll just sleep on the couch. I may be more comfortable that way. Happy September 2009.

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