Tuesday, May 15, 2012
caterpillars
Keeping and releasing caterpillars was something I had planned to do every year with my children, and I did it once when Bee was about 2 haven't gotten around to it for the past 6 years. But the great thing is that, in my now toddler-free home, I do not have to worry about anyone grabbing the container and shaking it (as happened to my praying mantis egg sac one year, thanks Bug).
Friday, May 11, 2012
Bee learns Danish
I have to say, we seem to be leaning more and more towards unschooling. Friday is "games day," where we only do flash card reviews (takes about 20 minutes maximum), and the rest of the day is for playing games, field trips, or free play.
Today, Bee chose to study Danish on his own initiative with his father's Pimsleur Danish Compact cassette tapes. He did the entire unit 1 and learned several words and phrases! I had thought Pimsleur would be too boring for him. I never would have dreamed that he would have done that all on his own. He keeps saying that he wants to learn "all the languages in the world." I am so happy that he is enthusiastic about his language learning.
Today, Bee chose to study Danish on his own initiative with his father's Pimsleur Danish Compact cassette tapes. He did the entire unit 1 and learned several words and phrases! I had thought Pimsleur would be too boring for him. I never would have dreamed that he would have done that all on his own. He keeps saying that he wants to learn "all the languages in the world." I am so happy that he is enthusiastic about his language learning.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
More Parent Well Being
Christine, of the Welcome to my Brain blog, has a great post today called Permission to Like Yourself. As a nerdy homeschooling parent of 2 brilliant little boys, I find that academics are always the easiest part of our day. I love to learn. They love to learn. I'm good at helping them learn mostly because they effortlessly. It's the other parts of parenting that scare me, the parts that every parent, home schooling or not has to do, raising a child of good character. Accepting, liking, and loving ourselves seem to me to be the basis of all of that.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Sleep, sweet sleep
I've never been a good sleeper. I love to stay up late and sleep
late. If I have to get up early, I've always liked to have a nap in the
middle of the day. This worked well at certain times in my life. As a
homeschooling mom, however, I don't have much time for naps. My
children are too young for me to really feel comfortable shutting the
door to my room and having a real nap. The best I get is a light doze
in the living room, where I can hear them playing and know if they open
the front or back doors.
I went on vacation with my husband. We had a cabin with east-facing windows (no curtain) that streamed bright light into our bed early every morning. We hiked all day. We went to bed early. I felt awesome.
I came home and didn't want to go back to my old schedule of staying up late every night, dragging myself out of bed each morning, and dragging myself around all day, drinking coffee and diet soda continuously.
So, I haven't. After the children go to bed, I get in bed with my Kindle, and I'm asleep before 11 PM. I realize that isn't early to some people, but it sure is to me. And then I get out of bed at around 7. I find I'm needing to set my alarm for 6:45 to do this because I just don't wake up well. (Probably may be an ADHD-type thing.)
The word on sleep deprivation and metabolism is pretty bleak. I've been reading about it for years. So what if I leave emails unanswered or chores undone? So what if I have to make activities while the children watch and help, rather than having them all ready? It'll be a lot easier to do anything the next day if I get enough sleep. Also, chores can be caught up on, but sleep is extremely difficult to catch up on. When sleep deprived, I am so much more snappy and grumpy.
I've been feeling that my sleep deprivation has been holding me back with my weight loss, as I've really struggled to see any changes on the scale these past few months, despite modest eating and exercise changes. I know I've built up muscle, and my clothes fit better, but it hasn't translated into any weight loss. I did see a slight loss about a pound, coming back from vacation, which I think was due to lack of stress, increased exercise, and better sleep. I ate plenty, including dessert (homemade cookies or brownies and S'more's trail mix!) twice a day.
Anyway, there is no other way that I know of to help myself lose weight while remaining completely imobile, other than getting enough sleep.
I went on vacation with my husband. We had a cabin with east-facing windows (no curtain) that streamed bright light into our bed early every morning. We hiked all day. We went to bed early. I felt awesome.
I came home and didn't want to go back to my old schedule of staying up late every night, dragging myself out of bed each morning, and dragging myself around all day, drinking coffee and diet soda continuously.
So, I haven't. After the children go to bed, I get in bed with my Kindle, and I'm asleep before 11 PM. I realize that isn't early to some people, but it sure is to me. And then I get out of bed at around 7. I find I'm needing to set my alarm for 6:45 to do this because I just don't wake up well. (Probably may be an ADHD-type thing.)
The word on sleep deprivation and metabolism is pretty bleak. I've been reading about it for years. So what if I leave emails unanswered or chores undone? So what if I have to make activities while the children watch and help, rather than having them all ready? It'll be a lot easier to do anything the next day if I get enough sleep. Also, chores can be caught up on, but sleep is extremely difficult to catch up on. When sleep deprived, I am so much more snappy and grumpy.
I've been feeling that my sleep deprivation has been holding me back with my weight loss, as I've really struggled to see any changes on the scale these past few months, despite modest eating and exercise changes. I know I've built up muscle, and my clothes fit better, but it hasn't translated into any weight loss. I did see a slight loss about a pound, coming back from vacation, which I think was due to lack of stress, increased exercise, and better sleep. I ate plenty, including dessert (homemade cookies or brownies and S'more's trail mix!) twice a day.
Anyway, there is no other way that I know of to help myself lose weight while remaining completely imobile, other than getting enough sleep.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Pick Your Own
My boys are pretty familiar with the life cycle of plants. They have planted many a seed and harvested many a vegetable, but it's always good to get out and see things growing. I did talk with my son about how the strawberries in grocery stores are shipped 3000 miles from California, even though we have strawberries growing right here.
A fun and educational experience. I love anything that gets my indoor boy outside. The same farm offers peaches each year, and they also sell seasonal vegetables. I am going to shop there more now that my boys are a little older and easier to cart around.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Unit Study: War
Well, Bee has been obsessed with war and weapons for some time. He only wears camo shirts, which I think it cute, and it makes clothes shopping for him very simple.
I've never been extremely interested in war myself, but I am trying to support his interest. The cool thing with learning about war is that there is ton of other history that goes with it. He's going to a war reinactment summer camp(!) for child his age. Also, his dad has been reading him Band of Brothers before bedtime. I assume that my sweet husband is editing any inappropriate parts, but I don't know for sure.
He's obsessed with the documentary America: The Story of Us. He's allowed to watch TV (especially documentaries) when he gets up before everyone else, and he's been watching this over and over. We're also starting Ken Burn's The Civil War, which I find fascinating, but so far, he thinks it's boring. I'm hoping he'll start to like it, because my husband would like to take him to some nearby battlefield sites, and the background would really enhance the experience.
But frequently with Bee what I think will be great isn't, and he tends to find his own way, which is often much more interesting than anything I ever would have thought up.
I've never been extremely interested in war myself, but I am trying to support his interest. The cool thing with learning about war is that there is ton of other history that goes with it. He's going to a war reinactment summer camp(!) for child his age. Also, his dad has been reading him Band of Brothers before bedtime. I assume that my sweet husband is editing any inappropriate parts, but I don't know for sure.
He's obsessed with the documentary America: The Story of Us. He's allowed to watch TV (especially documentaries) when he gets up before everyone else, and he's been watching this over and over. We're also starting Ken Burn's The Civil War, which I find fascinating, but so far, he thinks it's boring. I'm hoping he'll start to like it, because my husband would like to take him to some nearby battlefield sites, and the background would really enhance the experience.
But frequently with Bee what I think will be great isn't, and he tends to find his own way, which is often much more interesting than anything I ever would have thought up.
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