Oh my goodness, where have the days gone? Time has hit a superfast speed and all I am trying to do is keep up. I realized the other day that I have yet to order my neice's bday & christmas presents and as of this morning I still have not had a chance. Of course, I am here and not shopping the internet right now. Geez.
We have been busy with the good, the bad and the mundane. It has been okay. Apparently my children have come down with Christmas fever and have entered into a somewhat whiney and fairly annoying phase - but I am holding with the thought that it will pass. It will pass after all the birthdays, and holiday parties and Christmas has come and gone. Sometime, I am sure we will settle back in - only to face another upheavel to our lives.
I laugh to myself as I write this. Yesterday I had two moms, each with one kid, in a space of 30 minutes, respond when they found out that I had four young children. "Oh my goodness. How do you do it?" I think I may have gotten this when I had three and they knew I homeschooled. But, for some reason this struck me yesterday. I think I gave both of them a somewhat blank stare for 20-30 secs before responding. Why? Because I kept wondering how they expected me not to do it. I get up in the morning and just do what needs to be done that day - the same way they probably do. Honestly, I don't put much weight into getting too much of a to-do list done each day, because I am sure something more important will come up with the list that will supersede the list. If I actually stop to think about how I am doing - measuring it up against some arbitray list, then I am sure I will feel like a failure. Because I am not going to match up to a list I or someone else creates for me. But, at the end of the day, when we as a family are sitting around the table saying grace over a meal that my children helped me prepare - I don't feel like a failure. No matter what I have or have not done that day - my children have received love, guidence, correction. I have said I love you to everyone in the house at least twice. That is what I think about as I put out the many burning fires during the day. I love them all and that is what matters.
Talk about having a lesson about not laying to much expectation (either good or bad) into the future., and only focusing on the NOW in life. I'm there, I'm good.
Just to give a quick update on our lives. MB's 7th birthday is today - I'll probably post later on just that. But, this weekend we went out for a mom & daughter day. It was nice and something I will probably try to make into a tradition as each of the girls get older. MB got a new set of clothes - that she could pick out, with my approval. She also had her ears pierced - the 'big' gift for this year. She was a trooper - she wanted to stop after the first one, but we did convince her that she really needed to get both done. By the time we left the mall, she has so thrilled about it. She is constantly asking me if she can go clean her ears with the solution they gave her.
Tonight, instead of a birthday dinner, she and K will be singing in the homeschool choir performance. It should be interesting. The choir director was let go at the end of November for various things, so we mom's have been getting the children up to speed for the performance. In January we do have a new director coming on - so hopefully it will get better. The kids are really looking forward to it. I got to watch a little bit of their practice yesterday and I will say the kids are enjoying it and it should be fun. I just hope that no one comes expecting any 'polish' because they are not there.
Yesterday I received my issue of Time and the cover article was "How to Build a Student For the 21st Century." ( it isn't a free article, although you can watch an ad and then read the article - so next time you go to your doctor pick it up). The words Build and Student just caught my eye and I had to read. The article wasn't as bad as I was expecting. In fact it made a few points that I have believed for awhile about the downfall of education. But, the entire premise of the article is about how to educate a student to work in the future. It is not an article about how to educate a child to, I don't know, be educated for that sake alone.
And that point is made early on: "This week the conversation will burst onto the front page, when the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a high-powered, bipartisan assembly of Education Secretaries and business, government and other education leaders releases a blueprint for rethinking American education from pre-K to 12 and beyond to better prepare students to thrive in the global economy. " Isn't that just scary?
But there are points that are made that I do agree with - mainly because it is hopefully the education I will give my children. Maybe I should be on this board - haha.
Points such as:
~ Knowing more about the world
~ Thinking outside the box - and across disciplines
~ Learn how to find and process all the information and learn how to determine what is true or not, and then what to do with it
~ Development of people skills (because apparently kids are graduating from school without knowing basic deportment skills and how to work in a team environment) I could say something here, but most of my readers know what I could be thinking about this one. If you don't I will give a one word hint - socialization.
Of course if government education begins to resemble the model given in the article, there is one thing I can probably be assured of - there will be a generation of children coming who will be unable to play the classic Trivial Pursuit game.
In the end, though, it really comes down to who do we want determining what is an education for our children?
Have a great Wednesday.
Peace.
Amy
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