more thoughts on kindergarten

I know many people who homeschool their children. I admire them, and sincerely hope I never have to be one of them. But maybe I will. I just can't forsee the future; often life presents you with situations you never expect.

Yesterday I was driving in the neighborhood of a friend who homeschools her first grader and kindergartener (with a preschooler and toddler at home as well). I thought, maybe I should ask her if I can observe her one day, just to see what she is doing...

And then that thought was cut short by the realization that homeschooling Kiddo is completely unnecessary. The blessings of school for her are the things I could never provide for her at home: friends, knowledge in art, expertise in various child-friendly subjects, friends, independence, and friends.

She is learning, she is enjoying, and her favorite thing each day is an experience I couldn't recreate at home. Kiddo loves kindergarten. (which I always type "kinderfarten" then have to correct...)

homework

Kiddo is in kindergarten. Every day she has a short homework assignment. Yesterday she was asked to find the letters in her sight word "like" three times, then glue those letters into her notebook. I anticipated this would take her about five minutes. I gave her an old Ensign, and left her to her work.

30 minutes, 45 minutes, later she was still not done. What was going on? She was reading the Ensign (a magazine from our church geared toward adults). I'm glad she was learning about church history. I wish she would have finished her work.

Does anyone else see the absurdity of her reviewing the word "like" while getting lost in catching up on her adult-level reading?

(But, she is learning other things, and really enjoying herself, so kindergarten is OKAY.)

priorities

This is my boy. He weighed 14 lbs at his last check-up, two weeks ago. He is 97th percentile height and weight. So the fact that he refuses to sleep in his crib, except at night (thank goodness for that), and needs to be rocked to sleep either in my arms or my new Ergo carrier (thanks to my grandma for the money for it!) cramps my style. At least he smiles like this at me. And coos a lot. He likes me, but I think I deserve it.

In addition, I have two girls. One is largely self-sufficient, especially since she is at kindergarten for most of the day. But, there is an intense hour in the morning trying to get all of us out the door so she will be on time, and then a rigid end time where I have to be there again to get her home. (Whoever said 'never wake a sleeping baby' clearly only had one child - possibly two, but definitely not three.)

The other refuses to potty train, and two mornings a week attends preschool. For reasons that can only be described as personal revelation, it is a preschool I am running. (Although thankfully I only teach every three weeks. There is a reason I am not a preschool teacher.) 

In addition we have this house. I spent all my free moments, and many of my non-free moments, for two weeks cleaning it, in preparation for the visit of family for the Boy's blessing, then a semi-annual brunch we host. My visiting teacher and friend even came over two days to help me clean. You cannot tell that I did that... Well, maybe if you squint you can, we're slightly better organized, and thanks to my dad the good will stuff we had is gone.

My point is that I have no time. My "free time" is spent nursing a baby, or playing dolls with my three-year old, or perhaps sleeping just a bit, or feeding myself, so I can feed my baby. Am I poorly organized? Am I unrealistic in what I should be doing? Have I forgotten that all I really should be doing with an infant in the house is cooing back at him? I think so.