Julie Bogart

Today, awakened by the alarm clock at 7. Got up at 8. :) Came downstairs to kids watching
recorded anime cartoons with breakfast made and eaten. Cleaned up kitchen and checked
email. I teach online classes so I responded to work there.

Drove my daughter to school.

The kids and I read a chapter from Rascal, our current read aloud book, all snuggled on
the couch.

Then I had to work on a paper for grad school so the three kids took the dog for a long
walk to a local park to play. They were gone for about 45 minutes. My oldest woke up and
wanted to discuss Memento (movie) so I did that for ten minutes. fun.

Finished the paper and made lunch. We ate together. Kids and I did a quick pick up and
then they played a spy game where one of them hides outside and tries to "break into the
house" through a window and race upstairs undetected. They love this! They did that for
over an hour. Broke into an argument. I helped settle it and then they played some more.

13 yr. old watched Usher bust some moves on TV and then worked in his MathUSee book
(he requested a math program so we bought him one and he loves it). Youngest daughter
added more memoribilia to her ever expanding personal notebook. Everyone helped fold
laundry. Liam (10) played computer games.

Oldest took my car to a job interview.

I checked email, saw my flylady reminders and got in gear to pick up the house before
leaving for grad school.

Oldest returned later than I expected and I was now in full hurry mode. He saw that I was a
bit stressed needing to leve but with a refrigerator that appeared to be broken suddenly
and lots of frozen foods needing to go down to the basement freezer, not to mention the
need to clean up the kitchen so everyone could make a peaceful dinner while I was gone.

Noah said, "Mom, just go. I'll take care of everything."

He did. He moved all the food, emptied the dishwasher and cleaned up all the dirty dishes.
and he got dinner out to be heated (chili I made yesterday).

I went to grad school while Noah and Dad repaired Noah's car. Kids watched TV and
played computer games. Daughter came home to do email and homework.

At the end of the evening, I had conversations with every single family member. Amazing.
All happened naturally, but as i was typing, I realized that I had connected to everyone.
Noah asked me what I learned in class. My hsuband and I debriefed about class and kids.
Daughter and I went over her school day and had a few good chuckles. Little kids each
found me and chatted.

It was a very ordinary day. But very nice too.

I feel full.

Julie B

Sarah

Thanks for all the new day-in the-life accounts. I
needed to read some new ones (I miss unschooling.com).

Sometimes I think I over-strew and squash interests.
Oh, you like poodles? Here's a thousand books, a
field trip and a few movies. "Great, Mom, now I'm so
sick of poodles, I never want to see another!"

Where do you store art supplies (or science kits or
whatever) so they are easy to reach (but not for a
toddler) and in plain view without being messy?

Thanks again!

Sarah



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Julie Bogart

--- In [email protected], Sarah <sarahanne1@y...> wrote:

> Sometimes I think I over-strew and squash interests.
> Oh, you like poodles? Here's a thousand books, a
> field trip and a few movies. "Great, Mom, now I'm so
> sick of poodles, I never want to see another!"

That is the temptation, isn't it? I find that if my own life is full (I have stuff to do that
interests me), I am less likely to overdo their interests.

And at times I offer: Do you want me to check to see if there are any books on that topic?
I'll be at the library later.

Or: Here's a book about drawing that might help. (And I limit it to one book.)
>
> Where do you store art supplies (or science kits or
> whatever) so they are easy to reach (but not for a
> toddler) and in plain view without being messy?

Always a trick. When I had toddlers, I kept my art supplies in the kitchen cupboards next
to the glasses. They weren't in plain view, but the kids knew where they were.

My girlfriend had what I wanted. She had a bigger house and more tables. She kept her art
supplies in caddies (the kind that people use for cleaning supplies, etc.). She would put
them on the table when the kids were asleep and they would wake to see them there. If
they wanted to use them, they did. If the toddler was climbing on the table, she could pick
up the caddy and move it to a new location with ease.

That made sense to me.

My kids are older now and we use a big white cupboard for all that stuff and they know
where to find them.

Julie B

Elizabeth Hill

** Sometimes I think I over-strew and squash interests.
Oh, you like poodles? Here's a thousand books, a
field trip and a few movies. "Great, Mom, now I'm so
sick of poodles, I never want to see another!"

Where do you store art supplies (or science kits or
whatever) so they are easy to reach (but not for a
toddler) and in plain view without being messy? **

I think storing stuff on shelves or in closets or in boxes is good, but
then with strewing *rotate* them out onto the kitchen table or coffee
table. It's kind of like a current. You want to keep it flowing and
fresh, not stagnant.

(I really don't know how to deal with the toddler part. Because in my
house it works better for my son to see something than to hear me make a
suggestion. He likes his ideas far better than my suggestions.)

Also, just go ahead and be "messy", or at least cluttered. Try to think
of it positively, as a rich environment. Whole fat milk, not skim.
(Metaphorically. Whole fat clutter. <g>)

Betsy

pam sorooshian

On Sep 10, 2004, at 7:39 AM, Julie Bogart wrote:

>> Sometimes I think I over-strew and squash interests.
>> Oh, you like poodles? Here's a thousand books, a
>> field trip and a few movies. "Great, Mom, now I'm so
>> sick of poodles, I never want to see another!"
>
> That is the temptation, isn't it? I find that if my own life is full
> (I have stuff to do that
> interests me), I am less likely to overdo their interests.

Different times of life have been different for us in this regard.
Sometimes I've been pretty nonresponsive to new interests - that is
because I have three kids who have a LOT of interests. I have to admit
that there have been times that my kids had to get to the point of
BEGGING me to help them get involved in something new <G>.

Other times, I've been over-enthusiastic - sometimes concerned that a
kid wasn't "doing enough" - and jumped too quickly on some minor
indication she might be interested in something <G>.

They let me know when I'm not on target <G>.

-pam
National Home Education Network
<www.NHEN.org>
Serving the entire homeschooling community since 1999
through information, networking and public relations.

Crystal

I find that if my own life is full (I have stuff to do that
> interests me), I am less likely to overdo their interests.
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This works for me, too. The other thing I do is I just ask before I
spend money. A lot of times I ask, and they tell me they aren't
interested. Actually, a lot of times I find they aren't interested
in what I think they'd be interested in and I've just saved money by
asking first.

Crystal

Crystal

> This works for me, too. The other thing I do is I just ask before
I
> spend money. A lot of times I ask, and they tell me they aren't
> interested. Actually, a lot of times I find they aren't
interested
> in what I think they'd be interested in and I've just saved money
by
> asking first.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ok, this totally doesn't make sense. What I am trying to say is
that if you ask your kids if they want something before you buy it,
you may find they don't want it and you've saved yourself the money.

There, that's better!

> Crystal

kayb85

> Sometimes I think I over-strew and squash interests.
> Oh, you like poodles? Here's a thousand books, a
> field trip and a few movies. "Great, Mom, now I'm so
> sick of poodles, I never want to see another!"

I've done that! lol A few years ago we stopped at a park in a
different town after an appointment. There was a stream running
through the playground, and we just had a perfect day. We played at
the playground, played in the water, took pictures of the swans, and
followed the stream into a wooded area where it emptied into a big
river. My kids were just fascinated by the day. They asked which
river that was, and I wasn't sure if it was the Susquehanna or the
Schuylkill, so I went home and looked it up and told them. That's
all they really wanted. To know the name of the river, and to have
the memory of a really fun, full day.

But I didn't stop there. ;) I talked to them about every place on
the Susquehanna river we'd ever seen, and then ordered a map of the
chesapeake bay watershed. I planned a trip to the lake where the
river started, several spots along the river, and then to Maryland
where the river empties into the ocean. I got stickers so we could
put a sticker on the map of every place we visited. I got a few
books, one about salmon, one Minn of the Mississippi I think it was
called...I was on a roll <grin> I thought for SURE they'd like all
this since they had such a good day and were so interested in the
river we visited.

So one day I was talking to the kids about plans for the NY trip, and
dd said to me ever so gently, "Ummm...Mom? Do you know that you're
the only one interested in any of these trips?" roflol I'm glad she
burst my bubble before I dragged them all around the east coast. ;)

But anyway...

I think when it comes to knowing how much to strew, it's important to
listen to and trust your maternal instinct. Learn to recognize the
difference between your maternal instinct and the school voices in
your head.


> Where do you store art supplies (or science kits or
> whatever) so they are easy to reach (but not for a
> toddler) and in plain view without being messy?
>

I'm planning on reorganizing my cellar (it's a finished cellar) and
making it into a huge art area. I bought those over the door
organizers to hang on the wall with nails instead of over doors. The
ones I got have lots of pockets and they're mesh, so you could easily
see what was in them. I plan on just keeping them filled with cool
art supplies.

Sheila