Friday Ramblings

We have done school this week, and it has gone well. We did a few days on the schedule, then Thursday was a relaxed day because of the morning activities and then today I decided to follow their lead and kind of do things on the fly. We still had school time - but we did more games and fun learning type things. It was the day to let them have more say in what they wante to do for school. The week has worked for us. Introducing the week's topics and covering material early in the week fostered conversations and activities on them later in the week.

Today was really kind of fun, exhausting in a way, but fun. I may make Fridays like this. It started with MB relating to me how Hens make eggs, from a Magic School Bus episode she watched last week. Then we decided to have eggs for breakfast, so we examined the eggs before we cooked them looking at all the features that were mentioned in the episode. After breakfast MB made a "nest" with her blanket and wanted some eggs to nest with. Since I am not foolish enough to let her play with real eggs, we pulled out the leftover plastic eggs. After pretending to be a chicken for awhile I had a brainstorm and pulled out our change jar. I loaded up the easter eggs with various amounts of change and hid them for her to find. After she found them all she had to open them and count the change. We did that a few more times taking turns and having K help us find them.

Then they decided to do a dance show for me and showed off a lot of their gymnastic moves and basically had fun grooving to the music. After lunch I pulled out the pony beads and we made some necklaces. I did not even mention patterning, yet MB worked really hard on creating intricate patterns for her necklace. The rest of the afternoon was filled with various games and puzzles. MB was introduced to chess by her cousin and I have been trying to play it with her, but since I have never understood, nor been very good at the game it is tough. This evening I have recruited DH to become MB's chess teacher.

It really has only been in the last couple of months that it has become 'fun' to play board games with MB. She is really starting to discipline herself on taking her time and playing by the rules, win or lose. So I have re-loaded a couple of games onto the laptop that include a variety of card and board games like chess, checkers, sink the ships, go fish and crazy eights (among others) that she can play during her free time. These computer games I do not find detrimental if taken in structure doses because they emphasize critical thinking skills and patience in playing games, while also giving me a little bit of time that I can spend with the other two girls.

As we enter abut a month since I have lasted mentioned reading to MB, I was encouraged tonight when MB asked to look through her reading book. I asked which one, and she looked at me like we don't have 30 different reading books sitting on my shelf right now. "You know. The one that you make the sounds slowly." Ahhh, 100 Easy Lessons. So I located it for her to look through - just handed to her with no comment. She calls me back a few moments later to ask if we can "Pleeease do this book tomorrow because, it is boring not to read." My heart flitter-flaps before I answer, "Of course, sweetie. We can look at."

"No, I mean do it. I want to read." She responded.

So I am trying not to get my hopes up too much. We will see what her feelings are on it tomorrow morning. But hopefully with this interest and the fact that recently we haven't been able to read anything lately without her asking what this or that word is - maybe, just maybe.

I am very happy with our week, but my happiness is tempered with sadness and an anger over Hurricane Katrina and what has happened since Monday. I feel guilty that I can write about our normal, everyday activities. That we can, and have to go through our daily routines. Below in an earlier post I wrote about having some baby items that I wanted to share. I have since been in contact with Lori Seaborg and plan on sending the items to her for distribution to the survivors when they are needed. I will be sending them out next week as I have a few friends who want to send things along with me.

I am very happy going this route. I know that everybody says to give $$ to the Red Cross, and while I don't really have anything against them, I am so very disappointed to not see them in all of the news I have been watching. This is one of the reasons I do not like to give $$ immediately because I never know how it will be used. The reports I hear and on-camera interviews with local residents in the Miss. area I hear that they haven't seen the red cross yet and that the only people they have seen have been the church and civic groups that are actually entering the neighorhoods. The other organizations set-u outside the towns and want these hurt, dehydrated, physically and emotionally exhausted persons to come to them. How, I ask - everything they own has been stripped away. Are they only offering aid to those lucky/blessed few who manage to have aa vehicle. But, I guess it also comes down to an inherent distrust I have of large aid organizations -- all those meetings they have to have to a single thing drives me insane. Help the people first, then have your meetings. I support the neighbors and the churches and the small local civic operations that know the people and know the towns and understand at the gut level what these people need.

Sorry, about my rant. I am just so blasted angry about the apparent aid org/governmental services inability to do the simplest things following Katrina. And I am not just talking about New Orleans (but what a FUBAR that is), but mainly about all the small and mid-size coastal towns along the coast - because they are just like my hometown. Those towns probably percentage wise have suffered a much greater loss than N.O. But New Orleans is just easier for the news guys to rail on because FUBARS make for great tv and controversy.

Peace to all this Friday night.

Amy