Tired...

It's Tuesday and looks like I might have a cold. I feel stuffy and congested. I thought I was just tired but it looks like more than that. Dang. The gals seem to be fine, so that's one thing down. The baby is doing good too but I think he's a bit out of sorts...he was plugged up (poo wise) for a day and half but is starting catch up in that department. Thank goodness.

I feel sort of like I want to take a nap. But we have some school work to do. I got up at 7am to clean up the house as we had a visitor come over. It's for an event at the museum...looks like we got all the bases covered. I just need to do my end and get more folks involved, etc.

This whole last month was a bit wild...dentist appointments (got my tooth fixed! And the gals had their checkup (3 potential cavities, dang. And best of all, we love our new dentist!), more doctors appointments (check ups) and then, a brief calming time. The craziness is due to the car issue. We need more space; this should be fixed pretty soon. Then, we can take trips to the library and hit the gym. That's one thing I still can't wrap my mind around...having to do so many activities inside because of weather. I'm not saying that Southern California was the greatest (you had to worry about extreme heat and over-exposure to the sun (actually, you should do that anywhere)) but it was nice to walk in the evening. So, we're checking out our options around here.

I've started doing this drink 8 glasses of water thing. I bought this big water container and was surprised to see how much water I should be drinking a day. Boy, was I not drinking enough! I'm proud to say, I'm at the half way mark already. :)

We got the kids one of those tunnel things with a sort of pyramid shape thing from Target. They love it. It looks like it was money well spent and keeps them active. I'm looking into dance lessons and self defense for the kids. I remember taking self defense in college and it really makes you feel more secure about everything. I need to redo that, I think. Just a good thing to do.

Looks like we have to take Kiwi (one of our cats) to the vet. She is limping...I'm not sure why. I hope it's not a fracture or sprain but it might be. Though, it could be an ingrown nail...I'll check and make sure.

Pet wise, everyone is good. I got Nelson (the dog) a nail grinder thing...I got one nail done. But he attacks it otherwise. I'm trying to lure him with plate cleaning/treats. It works for about 2 minutes, so I have to be fast. I need to watch the video (on-line) to learn the technique.

The gals are doing good with homeschooling but I admit, it's been tough with the weather being so cold and having a new baby. It's kept us at home, which has it's pros and cons. I may try a school next year...we shall see. I do love cyber school, but it can be a little lonely. Activates for kids outside of the house would help. I guess I must be getting better with the baby and all to say that. Progress! :)

In the meantime, I've been reading up on various books on child development. One I recommend is "Ages and Stages". It's for birth to 10 years old. I wish I had gotten this when I first had my eldest. It really was a relief in that I, a lot of my approaches are the right thing to do and insightful as to how to understand my child (and not have to threaten with yelling/spankings). I just felt a bit relief in this regards and to see my kids as kids and not as people who need to be perfect or mini-adults. I also got a book on Waldorf style child raising...I like it as well. They are a bit too strict (no TV before 5? I don't think I could do that). But a lot of it is a good mentality of active/guided play, teaching skills such as sewing as well as learning the basics and so on. One thing I found extremely interesting was the idea of letting kids play till they were 7 and then seeing if they were ready to move on to academics. It was very pro-child and paying attention to their development (individually). That is so different from the popular attitude I've noticed (teaching kids to read at 3 years old and if they don't succeed, they'll never learn to read or need special help and all that this implies). I know the area I'm in is marked by low literacy rates and it's a good thing that parents/teachers are on top of this. But I do think it's pushed too early and most kids, if they aren't ready for reading/writing/numbers, will fail. I guess this is one of those fine tuning things about programs like this...usually the individual is left behind to follow the group mentality. That's my take on pushing kids too early.

One of the other things I liked about the books was that kids actually do better in mixed age group settings. Kids all the same age, will act about the same (good or bad behaviors included). Kids in mixed age group will act a bit more mature and get the benefits of older siblings or kids. This actually made me feel better about homeschooling as I could see why the kids were playing off of each other. I also saw how my eldest benefited by having older friends as well. They called this traditional schooling as opposed to peer schooling. In other words, kids are left to peer pressures very early on and if they don't have the skills to deal with this, can be lead to do things they wouldn't normally do. I liked how there was mention that kids need to do some things like everyone else as part of their growth (learning to fit in, etc) and strategies as to how to teach kids to make wiser choices. I love that!