The summer is over and I suspect we are all getting back at it!  We have been trying to get back to homeschooling for the last several weeks, but being grossly pregnant and uncomfortable I just had no desire to really put in any effort.  Now that the little man has arrived I feel much more pull to get it started.

This was a joke sent to me from a friend, and I thought I would share it here, as it reminded me very much of all 3 of our children!

GOOD QUESTION

A stranger was seated next to a 8-year old girl on the airplane when the

stranger turned to her and said, ‘Let’s talk, I’ve heard that flights go

quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.

The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and said
to the stranger, ‘What would you like to talk about?’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said the stranger ‘How about nuclearpower?and he
smiles.

‘OK,’ she said. ‘That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you
a question first.

A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass – Yet a deer
excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse

produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?’

The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence,
thinks about it and says, ‘Hmmm, I have no idea.’

To which the little girl replies, ‘Do you really feel qualified to
discuss nuclear power when you don’t know shit?

It made me laugh anyways!

A quick anecdotal story about Savanna as told to me by my Mom.

The girls were in thecar with my Mom on Wednesday, coming home after Constantine was born.   My Mom had an old Country CD playing, the song was called “diggin’ up bones” by Randy Travis.

Anyways, the song ends and my 4 year old asks “What did they mean, digging up bones Mamma?”  Before my Mom could respond Savanna blandly answers, “They’re talking about memories Cyndel, old memories.”   My Mom was amazed that my 6 year old understood enough of the lyrics and the country twang to get that from the song!

since when is “no” a legitimate answer? At what stage did my eager to please child turn into this robot whose automated response alternates between “no” and “I dont want to”?. it seems like everything I say gets a wise ass retort, anything I ask for I get a refusal. you little twerp – I ask to be polite, refusing me is not an option. I have now stopped asking, so as not to have the “no” as a possible response (and what a mental change that was, from being polite and asking to ordering about – although, truth be told, I kind of dig the power of ordering as oppsed to begging my child to do something). We now talk in orders and commands. get this, bring that, do this. is it working – not really, although I do enjoy being able to say “I didnt ask you to, I told you to” and “if you are rude once more you will be punished”.

I informed her today that the only time a refusal response will be allowed from her is in answer to the question “would you like X?”. as of tomorrow I will be carrying around a notebook and for every refusal a mark will be made. 3 marks – no tv, another 3 – no computer. anything more then that – no books, just sitting with arms crossed on the bed. I must be the only mother in the world who needs to resort to “no books” as a punishment. it goes against anything and everything I believe in, but desperate times etc.

Advice? Ideas? this attitude is new, but I want to nip it in the bud ASAP. I DO NOT plan on raising a 7 y/o with a teenagers attitude, and I am sick and tired of feeling like Miss Hannigen (from Annie, if you didnt get the referance) with the ordering about, and even sicker about this feeling of wanting to shake and harm my child.

I don’t know if you guys had seen this or not, but it looks like a good way to screen/suggest books for the kids.  You can search their reading level by inputting a couple of their books and then based on that level query age-appropriate suggestions.

http://www.lexile.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?view=ed&tabindex=5&tabid=67&tabpageid=313

I was “mommy of the year” yesterday, surpised the kids by picking them up from school and going straight to the pool. It is amazing to watch how Noam suddenly has figured out the water and has started loving it. I spent the past year schlepping her, kicking and screaming, to swimming lessons. At some stage she was swimming, and then she started being, well, her, and over annalysing. She managed to freak herself out about all the dangers possible and all the worst case scenarios imaginable. Add to that the fact that swimming didnt come easy to her – (something that only now i have realised why: swimming is based on seperation of motions – the hands do A while the legs do B and the head is doing C. all this occours in different times. For a kid like N who has spent 3 years in occupation therapy learnign how to do just that (seperating movement) so that she can write properly, catch a ball etc, swimming is hard). add her own brand of personality in it, the “I am the best at everything I do”+”i dont do things that there is a chance I might not be the best at” and you get this:  she stopped swimming and started crying, clinging to the wall, have hissy fits, its taken everyhitng from threats to bribary (I know, I know, great parenting lol). but finally , after a long, expensive year of swimming lessons, she finally “gets it” and more importantly – loves it.