Let it be

Sometimes you have to celebrate the less-exciting aspects of raising kids.  For example, I was esctatic when the kids got old enough to vomit in the toilet.  Who knew this would bring so much joy?  "You feel ill?  Are you going to throw up?  Ok - go time!"

I've gotten equally excited about their ability to fasten their own seat belts and read their own restaurant menus.  This week, I've been excited about not having to wake Allison up to go to the bathroom at 10:30pm.  She has been pretty slow with the toilet business.  I can't remember exactly, but I think it was between 4-5 when she was potty trained, and then at night it was still a problem.  We went from pull-ups to a mid-night wake-up perhaps in first grade.  And that's been the story of the past two years.  It works - 95% of the time. 

But then I noticed that she really didn't have to go that much when we were waking her up, and then one night we were exhausted and just skipped it.  And there was no problem.  So, we did it again.  It's been a week now, and I'm cautiously optimistic.  As with anything - I expect some backsliding at some point - and I wouldn't be lining up sleep-overs quite yet.  But it's nice. 

I know that there are things I think will 'never' happen (like being dry all night or riding a 2-wheeled bike.)  But Allison does things in her own time, and while I "know" this, I don't always KNOW this.  Life will periodically bring me subtile reminders.

Sweet Pictures

 Cute pictures of Allison - one with a dragonfly which kept her company during one of Jacob's batting practices, and the other warming up after running through the sprinkler yesterday

Also, Allison rocked her Japan presentation.  She scored excellent in all categories, including an excellent + in organization.  Comments: "Allison's system of presentation worked perfectly for her.  Excellent idea for  project.  Well rehearsed.  Allison was very poised during her presentation."

A new link

There is a new link to the right, and it goes to Allison and Jacob's Summer Blog.  I thought an appropriate title might be "My Mom is Making Us Blog This Summer," but then decided the humor might be lost on the kids.  There are actually not any posts yet - since it's not summer and the kids are still blissfully unaware that this is part of Mom's master plan to make summer "educational" too.

The original plan had been for this to be Allison's project.  One of her therapy goals has been developing "story-telling" skills.  These range from being able to tell us a story about what happened earlier in the day with sufficient detail to being able to infer meaning from the stories of others.  She's made lots of progress in this area.  In kindergarten and first grade, she couldn't even seem to keep the activities of her day straight to tell us about them later.  As in - we often had no idea what would happen at school.  "Did you do music today or gym?"  "I dunno."  It's not that she was clueless at the time things were happening - but the filing, sorting, and retrieving parts of her brain needed more.....development(?).  Those things have gotten better with practice and maturity, and we've graduated now to improving the narrative - filling in details and generally taking the parts of the stories and creating a whole "followable" thing.  Also, reading comprehension is replacing simply reading as the skill focus in school.  What happens next, what were they feeling, what is the theme here?  While Allison does fine with the reading words aspects - she still struggles with themes and tone and all that other softer stuff.

So I thought that writing about her days in the summer and posting pictures from her camera would be a great way to work on those skills.  But then, we also learned that Jacob has a fear of writing.  See post on his suspension from school.  So why not add him to the mix!  Misery loves company - or something like that.  My goal for him is to learn to take the copious thoughts that seem to ramble around in that noggin of his and put them in print.  (Today: "Mom, would you like it if all the concrete was squishy instead of hard?")  He has SO MANY ideas, but seems reluctant to write about any of them.

I think it might be fun.  My idea of fun may clearly diverge from their idea of fun.  But check back for postings soon, and please comment if you read their page.  Part of the fun for them will be that someone is actually reading it.

I think this photo needs a caption..

"You call the wolves while I conduct the orchestra."

Random photo from our camping trip with our friends at Point Beach State Park.  I'd never been camping there before, but it is the site of one of my favorite photos of Jacob ever:

He has grown a bit since then:

We had wonderful weather for pre-Memorial Day, though I was admittedly feeling like death-warmed-over from a nasty cold Allison had brought home.  Still - we enjoyed a trail bike ride to the birthplace of the ice cream sundae.  We spent some time on the beach with the kids playing ladder golf.  It was.... windy on the beach to say the least.  Those of us not in the photos were snuggled until blankets or laying down close to the warm sand.  

We broke both pudgie-pie makers, which was the biggest bummer of the weekend.  I also found a morel mushroom, but I'm too afraid to eat it.

Project time

So I..... er, Allison did a project on Japan this weekend.  I have mixed feelings about these "projects" that the kids do in school.  First grade is the robot.  Second grade was an insect poster and a project about a famous African American (Alice Waters because Alice is like Allison - her teacher commented on her "unique" choice).  Sometime I remember blowing bubbles in various liquids are recording the results.  There seem to be many opportunities for "learning" to come home.

The Japan project went something like this.  Allison brings home sheet with project guidelines.  Those guidelines say something like "research one of these things about Japan - no posters because we've already done so many this year."  Well, if by "so many" they mean 'none' - well then, I agree, 'none' is way too many.

The Japan project was promptly forgotten about amid the therapist appointments, piano lessons, baseball games, camping trips, and all around other crap we do.  May has simply been that way - it's not an excuse, it's just a fact.  Japan could have moved up on the priority list - but it didn't.

Last week, I pow-wowed with another parent to verify the date (5/29) and the guidelines.  Allison wanted to do earthquakes because she found a book in my office about earthquakes and it mentioned a Japanese myth about earthquakes being caused by catfish.  I thought this was a great idea.  Allison thought that she could take the book to show her class and that would be an awesome project.

So, we had a talk about what the project could be (not simply taking a book in) at which point she promptly changed to wanting to do a project on the yen - thinking that then she could take in Japanese money and show her class.  I reiterated that it was a project and not show-and-tell - though frankly "show and tell" might be more appropriate for 3rd graders.  I refused to let her change, given that it was due in two days and I actually had a plan for the earthquake thing.

Since posters were out - I took the liberty of choosing the medium for her - cardboard cutouts.  I then drew a combination of pictures she wanted (jigsaw puzzle - for plate tectonics) and pictures that I thought would round out the story (catfish, god Kashima who keeps the catfish under control, and two plates colliding like they do in Japan).  I think I drew pretty awesome pictures.

Then I pasted them onto cardboard and Allison colored them in.  She also did some labeling.  Ok - pictures complete, coloring complete - now for the text.  We nixed handwritten notes because.... well... Allison's handwriting is practically illegible.  And it's slow, and the teacher will know if I helped, and I don't want to engage in a smudging battle (another post another time).  So we opted to type (see picture above as proof that Allison typed some of it herself).  But we ended up with my typing the words she was saying, which was pretty much what was written in the book plus my additions to make sure that the story made sense.  We kindof cut and pasted from the book text.  I should teach her proper citations, but whatever.

We then printed, cut, and pasted the text onto the back of the cardboard cards.  Allison can hold them up in order and read.  Project complete!! 

Sometimes it's hard not to compare what the kids are doing with what I did as a kid.  I remember my first "research" project - which was actually 3rd or 4th grade - and assigned to me because I was bored with what was going on in the classroom.  It was something to occupy me with, and I mostly copied from an encyclopedia.  Our first "project"-based curriculum came in 5th grade and I remember a popsicle-stick Jamestown and a topographic map made out of playdoh.  Also, there was an experiment with cabbage and beet juice.  I remember getting help with all of them.

Therefore, I'm just not convinced that 1st, 2nd, or 3rd graders really have the organizational skills to pull of an "inquiry" project.  Or, perhaps SOME 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders do, but not mine.  So then a parent steps in to make sure that the child meets at least the expectations of the assignment.  I didn't do it completely, they are her ideas, words and coloring; but she didn't really do it either.  I'm worried that the 4th grade assignments will be bigger and more complicated, and I'll still be helping.  I'd like to know how many students do their projects without ANY help from mom or dad.  Because if it's (as I suspect) about 10-15% - then perhaps these projects should be rethought.  Or at least add "show and tell" about Japan as an option.

June is....

Dairy Month!!  I know it's not quite June yet, but one of our favorite seasons has begun..... Breakfast On The Farm Season. It begins with food....

Pancakes, sausage, eggs, applesauce, cheese, milk, and ice cream (because, you know there's always ice cream for breakfast in Wisconsin)

Then activities: (face painting, bowling, butter making)

Add some animal petting:

Finally - tractors to climb on!

And we can do it again!  In every county we can get to - which for us is a lot of counties!  Woo hoo!  We might not even have strawberries in season yet, but we have farm breakfasts!  Amen!

Hot water again

Last Friday, the hot water heater began to leak.  Well, that's not quite right - the hot water heater has leaked since we moved in - but last Friday it went from a drip.... drip.... drip from the value to a steady stream of water flowing from where the valve attaches to the tank.  I noticed the leak because when I went into the workroom to look for something it seemed kindof.... steamy.  Then I took a closer look at the heater.

First call - plumber.  Fortunately (?), we'd signed a contract to have the water heater replaced three days earlier.  I was waiting for an install date (which at the time, hadn't been so pressing).  He seemed somewhat concerned about my ability to turn off the existing water heater, because, "righty-tighty, lefty-loosy" is such a challenge for us women-folk. 

They scheduled the repair on Tuesday.  The weekend we were already going camping, so we didn't have to worry about showers or hot water then.  But our camping return, Monday and Tuesday mornings were a different story.  On the one hand, it was very inconvenient to shower at the YMCA or fitness center.  On the other hand, at least we had options.  We did have to have a space cleared around where the new hot water heater was going to go - and if anyone has seen the workroom, you'd know what a challenge that was!

On Tuesday they came and installed the new hot water heater.  It's a tankless hybrid, which means it's not totally tankless, but sports a 3 gallon tank to provide a little instant water.  It is sleek and cool-looking, hanging there on the wall.

It does make me pause a little to reflect on the on-going costs of homeownership.  In the last 3 years, we've replaced the furnace, A/C, hot water heater, and roof - plus removed 5 cottonwood trees, re-landscaped half the yard, and waterproofed the deck (twice).  I see how people could get underwater not just from paying a mortgage, but paying for all the extra crap that goes along with the mortgage.