It seems like yesterday we brought Bumblebee home, now he's about to turn two! Both big brothers are doing pretty well with our new addition. Bumblebee has gotten a little fussier and a little more clingy, but that's to be expected. Link was already in clingy mode, so nothing has changed with him; he still has to be near me all day :)
I'm both surprised and disappointed with my ability to get to the school room since we've been home. I'm surprised that we have been able to at all. I thought things would be a bit more crazy with me being tied up for an hour of nursing 4 times during the day. (Its not like I had 4 hours of free time before.) But we've gotten into a pretty good routine and so far he's not too needy (I know, its coming!). As long as I can nurse him and then put him down, we don't get too out of sorts. Luckily, he tends to have his fussy time in the evening when Daddy is home so he can do the holding while I do dinner.
So, in the month that we have been home, we've been in the school room maybe five times. We did some geography with the map of the continents and the globes. Link actually chose to do some work that he refused to do before our hiatus away from home. He did the red rods, cylinder blocks and geometric shapes. He even gave his little brother, Bumblebee, a presentation on the cylinder blocks! It was great! He was so serious and Bumblebee did it right away. I can't wait to start bringing them both, I think (hope) it will light a fire under Link :) I can see that I am in need of some new activities. Link walks through the room and I can see him thinking "I've already done all these!".
Oh, I also introduced two sandpaper letters. Link has gotten really good at our word games. We don't do I Spy in the traditional way. We really just try to think of as many words as we can that begin with a sound. Its a long trip back home and I find that if we do this in the car Link doesn't drive me as crazy with "are we there yet?" Anyways, he has shown lots of interest in letters so I felt like I should start teaching him what they look like.
Because of my inability to get to the school room, I have decided that I need more structure. If I keep waiting for a time when "we have time" to do school, we'll never have time. There are always things to do that keep us from doing school work. I need to clean the kitchen, wash clothes, go grocery shopping, take a shower, give the baby a bath, or something! What I'm going to do is start treating it like a real school day. I need to set my alarm to get out of bed, shower, dress the boys and feed them on time in order to "get out the door" on time. We'll do school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm shooting for three hours, but I know it will just be for as long as they can handle it. But for that time, I'm "at work" and cannot let things like housework distract me.
Kudos to all those out there who can do it all, but I cannot find the time to both homeschool and do all of the things that I have been doing. I honestly don't know how working moms do it! There are not enough hours in the day!
I plan on starting this new routine in two weeks. I am still nursing every three hours around the clock. My chubby little baby is either very slow or very hungry, because it takes about an hour to change diapers, nurse and burp, so we only have two hours in-between. Wish me luck!
Oh no, its past 8:00, I've got to get in bed!
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