We had a pretty good day, in all honesty, all of us, not just the kids. I had no idea what to make of anything when we arrived. Being a pierced, tattooed (okay, so it's only one) mama with dreads I'd already felt pretty out of place, especially not being Christian. The whole thing sets up in a church and apparently a large number of the older kids are all in choir at the church together. I felt like I might not find a good place to be myself here, but at least the kids would have a good time. Isn't that what mattered?
As we walked in we were greeted by another mom that directed us where to go. There was a pretty sizable group there. I felt very out of place with all the other moms there, and my kids seemed so unprepared. All of the kids had backpacks. They'd all brought their lunches. I had no idea I was supposed to have them bring bags, lunches, or any of that. I'd thought about packing lunches, but I'd decided better on the idea since we had places to go afterwards. I didn't realize that they ate lunch at the playground and played for a good while afterwards, otherwise I definitely would have been more prepared.
Off on one side of the room there was a gaggle of girls playing hand games and doing other things I found quite familiar from my days in Girl Scouts. My kids stuck by me, which I was grateful for because I didn't know anyone either and I felt just as lost and out of place as they did! The other kids were mingling in the room and some of the oldest of the bunch moved out into the hall being overwhelmed by the chaos of it all. It was kind of nice to see so many kids out and playing. It looked like my daughter's group was mostly girls, which was good for her, and my son's group was a small number, four boys and one girl. We got a look at the class sheet and I tried to figure out where I belonged in all of it. It was highly confusing, but I figured if we'd just wait, everything would come to order.
As the families started to evacuate the room I felt a little concerned. Someone had asked me if I wanted my youngest to be taken to the playground for outdoor play. She assumed I would. I told her I'd be okay with taking him myself. I was pretty free to wander around that first period, so I wanted to make sure I was there until he really got into his comfort zone. He's never really spent much time at a playground and he didn't know any of these people, so I'd help him feel comfortable. I had almost given up hope on finding where the older two belonged when it seemed like the only group left was made up of the groups my older son and daughter were in. Those two groups went together to the gym, which was great because my older son, who is normally as timid as a mouse and quite the loner, would at least have his sister there until he was a little more comfortable, and I would be with him by the second class.
So off my older two went to the gym while I went out to the playground with my youngest. He was surprisingly timid, given the usual boldness with which he usually takes to playgrounds. He's usually ready to run around and investigate everything. I let him go do his own thing and tried to take his sippy cup so he could play, but he clung to it with a death grip. I attempted to pry it from him, but decided to give up hope as soon as I realized it wasn't going to work without him crying. Thankfully it wasn't long before he'd ditched the cup to climb on a car made of wood, metal, and old tires. It wasn't long before he was proving just what an adventurer he could be. He climbed all over the structure and even went down the tallest slide (though it was on my lap) and seemed to have a grand time of it. We just found out the other day that he's still a bit chunkier than he is tall, so I think all the exercise of climbing and running around outside every week will do a good bit to make sure he's just a chunky baby and doesn't end up on the unhealthy side. It might also do good for his constant desire to eat every time he so much as thinks there might be food nearby. At least now maybe he'll be more inspired to adventure than eat us out of house and home. He's going to be a strong one with all of that getting out and playing.
Apparently P.E. in the gym for the other two was a good deal of fun. I just feel it's too bad I didn't get to see the games they were playing. From the sounds of it, they all had a lot of fun. My poor older son looked absolutely exhausted by the time he met us inside for the sign language class. It was a sure sign that he didn't get enough sleep last night. We need to tailor our schedule to getting them to bed on time a little better. They all looked pretty wiped when I got them out of bed.
The sign language class was short, and I guess we're going to combine it with the kinder-music class for the littlest ones, so I'll be able to spend that time with both my boys that period, or at least for part of it. The kids in the sign language class seemed to think it was pretty fun and wanted to be in on the music and songs too. I thought the sign language was great. I think we might start working on using it a bit more around the house. As much as my littlest is a little too young to be working with baby sign and I should be focused on language skills, I think it couldn't hurt. Sign language is a useful skill and you never know when it might come in useful. It never hurts to know a different language because you never know when you might need to know it. Well, in their case, it may not truly be seen as another language, especially since deaf people aren't incredibly common, but it's always good to have the knowledge. Plus, as the teacher pointed out, it's a great way to be able to ask the kids if they need to use the potty or anything else from across a crowded room or across the playground. It's definitely got it's uses. My poor son didn't really seem to be paying attention. He looked around like a zombie while eating his snack and didn't even try most of the signs. I thought he was just tired and he would probably be like that all day. I was a little disappointed, but it was understandable.
After that I watched the littlest kids play while my older son was learning about the body and my daughter went to chemistry. I felt bad because I didn't get to sit in on what both of them were doing, but I got reports in on my older son. They were singing, dancing, had show-and-tell (which I wasn't prepared for in the least, so I felt a little bad), and they made little paper bag puppets. They apparently had a great time. I also apparently didn't have to worry about my shy, exhausted middle child. I guess he was participating and was quite involved in everything. Here I was thinking he would be spacey and exhausted the whole day, but apparently he just needed a bit of a snack to perk right up!
My daughter through all of this didn't seem interested in telling me anything. At the end of it all she showed me her folder where she had two poems by Emily Dickinson and an imagination drawing they did. She was supposed to write a poem, but her writing skills are definitely lacking. She's got a lot of work to do there!
We decided to stay and play when everyone was having lunch. Most of the kids just got up and played instead of eating. My kids had a blast. My son did have an accident in the playground, but he wasn't the only one in his class to have an accident. It's hard. They're still so young and they've got so much to distract them from using the bathroom when they need to. I can't entirely blame them. Next time we'll just have to remember to work on it, and work on making sure there's always a spare set of clothes packed, just in case.
After it all I found out just what an impact the homeschool co-op had. Not only do I feel different, but so do the kids. I'd met some really cool moms that are involved with things I wish I could be involved with. They raise their kids the way I wish I could raise mine. It was a huge breath of fresh air and felt like a step in the right direction. On top of that, my exhausted middle child proved he learned something in his sign class by showing his sister all the signs he learned in class today. My daughter said she needed help writing for her class, so she decided to come home and read a book. She picked up Sam the Minuteman
, read it, and had all kinds of questions. More importantly, she actually retained a lot of what she read! She wants to work on writing too, so I think we may do some of that after dinner while I'm cleaning the house. I've never seen her sit down and read an entire book without complaining, never mind cruise through it! I guess she didn't have the right incentive! On top of it all, both my younger two came home exhausted. My youngest son tried to climb into his own playpen to sleep, so I picked him up and put him in. My middle child climbed up on his bed while we were gathering the laundry up and pulled a blanket over him. He said he was tired and needed to take a nap. He took a nap when he was tired without me even having to ask him! And me? I'm cleaning the house, got the laundry together, and it feels like my life is finally going to start going in the right direction. I'm so incredibly calm right now, even with everything going on. I can't wait until next week to do it all again!So now it's time to start dinner, a little later than planned, but that's okay. All the kids need baths and showers, because they got pretty dirty playing that hard, especially outside. I think they may all sleep well tonight and tomorrow we're going to be off to a brilliant start again. I already know my daughter has a million questions about the American revolution, which is good because it's going to be so much easier for her to learn about it now that she's starting to find drive to read. My aunt sent her a lot of books on colonial America and the Revolutionary War, which is fantastic because that's something my daughter and I can really share a love of. She's branching out and isn't as stuck on just one thing, art! I have a feeling my middle child is going to be a lot more inspired to branch out and learn new things too, and we can keep practicing his sign language. Hopefully we can get into doing a lot more and really start getting into a routine that makes all of us happy, something we can all gladly work with, and get a lot more done in our days!
No comments:
Post a Comment