Christmas is coming...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, homeschooling, books, all that good stuff...let's talk about CHRISTMAS. More specifically, the terrible time I am having trying to decide what to get Gracie. Gracie is a hard kid to buy for. She likes everything, but nothing in particular. She is interested in a wide range of things- dinosaurs, animals, art, cats, fairies, space, the ocean, Australia, bugs, sharks...you get the idea. So pegging down exactly what to get her makes my brain hurt.

Caleb is sooo easy. For all the hard times he gives me in other ways, he is so easy to please. Caleb's interests(after purposely driving me mad) go like this: 1)Thomas, followed by all other trains 2) Construction vehicles of any kind 3) pieces of wood 4) tools on which to bang said pieces of wood. Lately we have been having problems with woodstove kindling disappearing, only to find them holding up sections of Thomas' tracks or Lincoln logs. So this Christmas, Caleb is getting a huge set of big wooden blocks, a really cool working scoop loader, and a crane that goes with his Thomas set. Easy.

Back to Gracie. Now, I am usually impervious to the siren's song of name brands, and even pride myself on finding some really original, significant toys for my kids. With the exception of American Girl dolls. Those little harpies screech to me from every catalog "Buy me!"... "No me!"..."Buy us both!" On top of that, they hurl threats at me "Felicity will soon be gone! Buy her now before she's locked in the vault FOR-EV-ER!" (or until you find her on ebay). I don't know what it is about them. I love that they're all from a time period, so you feel like they're educational too. If I was filthy rich I would include American Girl doll books in our history lessons and buy every doll that went with them. I love that they look wholesome.I love that they have a "girl-power" vibe without being feminist.Maybe it's because I remember drooling over the catalog as an 8 yr old, back when it was still Pleasant Company and you could only choose from Kirsten, Samantha, or Molly. After pining away for a year and a half, my dreams came true and I got a Kirsten doll. It was all I hoped for, except her hair was horrible as soon as I brushed it (now they have the doll hospital for that). I loved the books just as much as the doll, and had the Samantha and Molly books too. After a few years I outgrew her, and my mother short-sightedly gave her, along with her blue bed and quilt, to a younger girl from our church. Then, last year, they retired her. I almost cried.

So over the past few years, the American Girl catalog has found it's way to our house. Gracie looks through them, and expresses interest, but never in a specific doll. I always thought it was something we'd get when she was older, but then this year, the 2010 doll of the year is Lanie, "an energetic girl who explores the world in her own back yard" She's blonde, and you can purchase an outfit that includes rubber galoshes. Gracie anyone? Her accessories include a jar of bugs, binoculars, and also woodland friends, a fox, an owl, and a squirrel. And, Yes, I totally recognize that Lanie is pushing the liberal environmentalist "Go Green" agenda.
But love is blind.

 

(Notice the Dorling Kindersley Field Guide to Birds?!)

We go to a monthly class for homeschoolers at the Wetlands Institute, and I can just picture Gracie now, releasing hatchling turtles into the ocean, rubber-galosh clad Lanie in tow.

Gracie...starts talking about Bitty Babies(?!)

Bitty Babies are adorable too, and you have to admit there's nothing cuter than a 6 yr old pushing a doll stroller. I want to get her what she wants...but Lanie is only here for THIS YEAR!! Yes I know! I am a complete sucker for their marketing ploys!

To make things even more painful for me, they also make "Bitty Twins" which look exactly like Caleb, which I have been forbidden to buy. (Although I have to admit the thought of two Calebs makes the side of my face twitch)

I should add now that I don't even really like dolls. Just these dolls.
If Gracie doesn't make up her mind soon, I am seriously going to put Lanie on my own wish list :)

Better Days

This week has gone a lot better than the last few, thanks mostly to some more tweaking of our system and a mattress pad. Yes, a mattress pad! Luke was still not sleeping at all during the day, and waking up every hour during the night. He always fell asleep in our arms, and as soon as he hit the crib, he was awake and screaming. I ended up putting him in bed with me a lot, and every time he zonked right out. So I thought that the crib mattress being so hard might be the problem. I got the mattress pad Monday, and he only woke up twice. Then Tuesday he took a TWO HOUR nap(!) and slept that night from 10-5. What a difference some sleep makes...

I also started "officially" including Caleb in our lessons. Every day he would ask, "You teach me?" so instead of waiting till he naps(which is never guaranteed anyway), we read the FIAR story with him and then while Gracie does seatwork he gets a coloring page of a shape, letter, number, or, Thomas the train(I don't tell him Thomas isn't actually "schoo-work", as he calls it) He's a smart little bugger and has known the alphabet since he was two, which further proves that kids are learning all the time, as I never taught him any letters. I still don't know how he picked them up.

After that we break for some lunch, then I do try to get Caleb and Luke to sleep, and Gracie and I work on phonics and math. I like to have at least math with no interruptions, as this seems to be what she is least interested in. Phonics is a breeze, but I am still doing the easy lessons because they include some good rules, and the easiness boosts her confidence anyway.

Then, for Bible, I passed the buck to Jeremiah. I wanted him to be included in some way so that Gracie would look at him as someone to learn from too, not just "Mom is the answer person". So they do that after dinner, which also frees up time for me during the day. We use Christian Light Bible, which I have to say is kind of dry and predictable. Every day is the same, read the passage, read the story, color the picture. I will definitely be looking for something else next year. Anyway, Jeremiah is doing really great with that, he taught her how to look up verses, which I didn't think to teach her yet. He also asks her to read as much of it as she can, and I was really, really surprised by how much she could read! I just take for granted that "it's the Bible, she can't read that yet", so it was really cool to see Jeremiah bring something out of her that I didn't even know was there.

I also ordered a 30-trial of the Muzzy Spanish program. I have been looking at programs since before we started, but I didn't know what was good, and they're always over $100. A lot of them had books for parents to read, which wouldn't work for us because I would mispronounce everything! I remembered Muzzy commercials from when I was kid and looked it up. It think it's mostly DVDs and CDs, so I don't have to do much of the teaching. ( I do know "taco", "burrito", and also, "cinnamon twists", lol) We can try it free for 30 days and if we want to keep it, we can pay monthly for 5 months. It is definitely becoming more and more useful, almost necessary, to know Spanish, and now is the time for them to learn it. Maybe I'll pick some up too. I am pretty excited about it.

Lastly, the biggest change of all- I started relaxing. One day I was doing the dishes, after making applesauce all morning. Luke was screaming, the house was a mess, and there was still school to do. I was getting stressed. My heart started racing like it was in my throat. Then I realized, this is ridiculous. Who am I trying to impress? Jeremiah doesn't care. My kids don't care. Why do I care? I don't have to bake all morning and clean the house and do schoolwork. I was making myself unhappy, and if momma ain't happy... it's true! My kids will never look back and remember that there was dishes on the counter in 2010. But they will remember if I was miserable. So I let it go. As long as we have clothes to wear, dishes to use, and clean bathrooms, we're good, and I can use the weekends to get caught up. I have the whole rest of my life to clean my house, but I only have a few precious years to raise my kids.

Besides, when they're bigger, they can clean it themselves :)