Monastic motherhood

There is a part of me that thinks parenting is, or should be, like monasticism. There's a lot of repetition of chores, praying, hard work, service and calls to overcome the flesh. Right now the issue I am dealing with the most is learning how to parent as an introvert.

People tire me out. I need a certain amount of time alone to recharge. My son is quite independent but also needs a good amount of attention, quite regularly with physical contact. And while I love cuddling with him and playing games with him, sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in the backseat of the old station wagon with both of my brothers. "Stop touching me!"

I haven't come up with a solution to this problem. It's something I'll probably always have to work on. For example, right now he has both of his legs draped over one of my forearms as I am typing this. And he's stealing my graham crackers.

It's a good thing he's so cute. :)

A good week

This last week has been good. Cooper's making noticeable progress in all of his learning. The FCRR curriculum I'm using is just wonderful, his handwriting is getting better, he's making progress in math, and we have been learning about magnets this week. Our front door kind of looks like a refrigerator with the number of magnets on it, but he had so much fun discovering which surfaces in the house were magnetic and which were not.

Now I just need to find my cell phone so I can take pictures of some of the things we have done. I haven't seen my phone in a week.

Chapter books

I've started reading a chapter book to Cooper at bedtime. I've found that his tolerance for read alouds is much higher in the evening than during the day when there are so. many. things. that needs his attention. Not only am I hearing the fabled words of "read some more!" but I'm also impressed with how much of the story he remembers. He basically retold the story to his dad last night, to catch him up to where we were.

How things have been going

A little update on how we are doing:

Math: We've been working on more than, less than lately and today he figured out how to skip count by 10's as he was playing with the calendar. So, yeah, I'm not really worried about his math progress.

Writing: We're working our way through the Getty Dubay Handwriting A book. A page a day, or sometimes we'll do something else for copywork.

Reading: He does pretty good if I give him a word that he can decode how to spell it - he loves typing on the computer. We're working on recognizing rhyming words now. We stopped using Hooked on Phonics and have moved to a program developed by the Florida Center for Reading Research. It's lots of fun games and ideas for a more kinesthetic approach to learning. And then we are testing out the weight limit of our library bag each week. 

Science: This is mostly interest led. Today we spent quite a bit of time playing with flashlights and different colored lenses to explore color mixing. Also, the major thing Cooper learned from the unit we did on the body was that the body turns food into poop.

Memory work: Address, phone number, scripture verse.

Fun extras: Cooper had his first gymnastics class last Friday. He is not the most coordinated child, but most of the other kids have had gymnastics before, so he's just behind in some of the routine. I think we're going to start going to story hour at the library every Thursday. We bake bread every Monday. Cooper finds the bread machine endlessly fascinating, and today's loaf was the best so far. I tried mixing a couple of recipes I've liked in the past and came up with a nice, light but hearty, recipe with whole grain flour.

Oh, and we got these awesome hand puppets

identified this Box Elder Beetle nymph

and built this giant rocket.

Listening to Cooper make himself a sandwich

I would like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on some nice bread.

We have to get the bread and the peanut butter and the jelly.

The bread is the first ingredient in the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

We have bread. Now it is time for the peanut butter.

So, we've got all the ingredients to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The peanut butter is the second ingredient in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Now we have the peanut butter.

This is the jelly. Jelly is the third ingredient of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Ta-da! This is peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Awesome thing about parenting #432,566,895

Watching your kid fall in love with the books you loved as a kid. So far both Make Way for Ducklings and Millions of Cats have been favorites.

Friday we are going to read We Were Tired of Living in a House (with the Doris Burn illustrations), Andrew Henry's Meadow and The Little House, and then do an art project that is based on designing a house.

And how do I not have the Mr. Putty and Tabby books?

My life is awesome

Things we've done in the last week or so.

Made birdbaths. We put one in the sun, and one in the shade. We're charting the results to see which birds prefer. So far, shade is winning.

We are learning bird calls. Chicka-dee-dee-dee!

Built forts. Stocked forts with supplies.

Tried to make popcorn on the stove. Made waaaaaay too much.

Colored. Ridden bikes. Spun around in circles.

Baked bread.

This is how I spend my days.

This is the best life ever.