I have so many little matters to tell you of, that I cannot wait any longer before I begin to put them down.
Jun 1st, 2008 by ECM
Letters from Pemberley will be on hiatus now through Wednesday in honor of Auntie Laura coming to St Louis to visit! Laura is more than a bosom friend to me and loves Tommy just as much as a real aunt, so I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun things to write about after she has to leave…
Jun 1st, 2008 by ECM
Okay, I should maybe be a little embarassed about this, but today Tommy had his first french fries! After church we got invited to go right out to lunch with the Smiths and Somervilles, so I didn’t have a chance to go home and pack Tommy a meal. We went to Fitz’s and had a great time. It’s so nice to go out with another allergy-conscious mommy; I made sure the kid burgers had no dairy, and Janet found out that the fries were not made with peanut oil.
Tommy and Ty were excited not only that their meals came in little cars, but also that they got to eat smiley-face shaped french fries. Both were a big hit! Ty did great with the coloring, but Tommy doesn’t quite get crayons yet (another thing to add to his “behind” list?). Tommy did get the kiddie cup with the straw–he’d never had a straw before, so it was a huge and exciting novelty. Oh, and I made up for the greasy lunch by giving him all fruits and veggies for dinner. =)
May 31st, 2008 by ECM
Tonight Derek and I mused on Tommy’s development compared to other babies his age. Here are our (unscientific) conclusions on how he stacks up to other 15 month olds…
Ahead
Behind
Are we really concerned about Tommy’s development? No. He’s generally a chubby, active, happy boy, and we love him just the way he is!
May 30th, 2008 by ECM
Recently I came across this article on a homeschooling website. The title, “How Long Should a Homeschool Day Be?”, piqued my interest as a current homeschool tutor and future homeschool mom. I expected to read a common-sense suggestion of how a busy family might set up their homeschool day. Instead, I became more and more irate as I read an attack on the amount of time wasted in public and private school classrooms. She refers to uncited “studies” that find that students K-12 only spend 84 minutes per day actually learning. The rest of time is wasted with lining up, passing out papers, bathroom breaks, etc. (As a private school, homeschool co-op, and now online classroom educator, I find this very hard to believe–I generally spend 3-5 minutes getting a new group of students settled and the remaining 55 or 115 minutes tackling the material. And that’s just one class. These “studies” must only look at very low-performing schools with abysmal teachers.) Here’s the key line of “encouragement” to homeschool moms:
So, do your children spend an hour and a half each day learning – either reading, writing or discussing school subjects with you? Are their minds engaged for an hour and a half throughout the entire day? If so, you are doing better than the schools across the nation.
What upsets me so much is not that this author is trying to encourage tired homeschool moms or even that she is pointing out that much of school, especially the early grades, can be done in far less time than the traditional seven hour day. What bothers me is that this author is buying into the homeschooling black hole of the lowest common denominator. We’re not educating our children at home for academic and moral excellence and character instruction; we’re just measuring our success by keeping up with the lowest standard we can find.
A couple hours or schoolwork may be sufficient for the lower grades, but older children need to learn to glorify God with their mind by sticking to their studies for longer than 84 minutes a day. It probably took me 84 minutes just to get through an Algebra II lesson or to review for a French test. Sadly, though, my previous co-op experience showed me that homeschoolers with low standards are much more common than I had thought. (“Well, my kids’ friends don’t have to write a research paper in public school, so I’m going to let them drop your research and writing class. Besides, they’re not college material, anyway.”)
Don’t get me wrong–I am a huge homeschooling fan. I started planning out Tommy’s homeschool curriculum as soon as I found out he was on the way, and I love, love, love the homeschoolers I taught this year. I tend to think that the world would be a better place if we all started our kids with the Veritas Press curriculum and then put them into a Great Books Tutorials sequence, but I do realize that not everyone is called to homeschool. Good thing Derek is a product of 13 years of private schools–he keeps me from getting too opinionated! =) I know there are many, many homeschoolers who do not operate with this “lcd” line of thinking, but it is certainly tempting to do so. It’s a tough area, but it’s not helpful to have homeschool newsletters spouting this brand of “encouragement” to worn out parents. Let’s not be satisfied with the lowest common denominator–let’s make excellence our goal!
May 29th, 2008 by ECM
A last-minute visit from Grandpa Willett has provided much enjoyment for both him and Tommy. Tommy’s favorite thing seems to be wearing Grandpa’s shoes…
May 28th, 2008 by ECM
Derek finally put together Tommy’s Christmas present from Nona–his very own little red wagon. Downstairs has never been so fun! This afternoon, Ashley apparently pulled him around and around the basement in it for 45 minutes while I was teaching my class…
May 28th, 2008 by ECM
Guess who decided to walk all the way from the backyard to the sidewalk, then all the way down to the end of the street? Well, it wasn’t Mommy, though she ended up coming along. We were considering going around the corner to the playground, but a bump in the sidewalk changed our plans…the blood dripping off of Tommy’s first skinned knee didn’t affect Tommy, but he got carried up the hill, back home, and into the bathroom for first aid, anyway. Now he’s pretty pleased about his bandaid, though Mommy is aware that flesh tone is a boring color, and we’d better pick up some more interesting ones with Elmo or something on them next time we go to Walmart.
May 27th, 2008 by ECM
Tommy and I took three boxes of donations to GoodWill today. My goal for the week: spring cleaning of every room and closet, and three more boxes of donations by the weekend!
May 26th, 2008 by ECM
Scene One: Derek looks into Tommy’s room to find Em in the rocking chair reading Dr. Seuss to Tommy with her eyes closed.
Em: Boom! Boom! Boom! Mr. Brown is a wonder! Boom! Boom! Boom! Mr. Brown makes thunder!
Derek: Um, I think this is a sign that you need to take Tommy to the library and pick up about 15 new board books.
Em (eyes still closed): He makes lightning, Splat! Splat! Splat! And it’s very, very hard to make a noise like that! (squinting at Derek) I got him new board books the other week, but I already have them all memorized. And the library isn’t open today. (closing her eyes again) Can you turn the page? Mr. Brown can whisper, whisper very soft, very high…
Scene Two: Derek is lounging on the futon, reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces while Em sits hunched over the computer, reading junk on the internet. Tommy walks in like this:
Derek (proudly): Look! He wants us to read this to him! What an intellectual dude. Do you think he has good taste in reading because he sees Mommy and Daddy reading good stuff all the time?
Em (guiltily closing down the dumb message board she was reading): Um, yeah.
May 25th, 2008 by ECM
Today we came home from church and realized that we were out of eggs, kleenex, and other necessities, so we headed out in the sunshine for a family shopping adventure. While in Target, however, the weather changed so quickly that it was thundering and pouring by the time we got out. Despite Daddy’s best attempts to run to the car and bring it close, Mommy and Tommy got drenched running to the curb. So much for taking a classy family picture while we were still all in church clothes! Back at home, we decided that the best way to dry off would be a family snuggle party in bed. We got drier as our sheets got damper, and a joint tickle/kiss attack on Tommy turned into a nose biting attack on Daddy (Tommy hasn’t learned the difference between and kiss and a bite yet).
