This Week's H/School Journal

In our homeschool this week...
...Well, we were going to start our Big Cat week, but we had enough scheduled already that I decided we'd relax a little more this week and get started fresh this coming week.  We did spend a couple of hours at our central library hunting up all kinds of books and videos on the four Big Cats that will be the focus of our examination.  But for this week, we stuck to the regularly scheduled activities and left it at that.

Places we went and people we saw...

...We had friends over for breakfast one day, got together with other friends on another day, and I saw my hair stylist for a very needed cut and highlight job (it had been six months since my last cut!).  I also got out for coffee with a dear friend later on Friday night, which I loved being able to do.

My favourite things this week...

...having a friend come over for three hours one afternoon to take care of the kids while I went out!!!  Yes, that's right - I went out by myself during the day.  It was the first time that I've had anyone other than my parents look after the three kids during the day.  And the kids had a blast: planting flowers; painting pictures; riding bikes; etc etc.  Thanks, H, for making it possible...I want you to come back...please??!!  Things are slowly changing around here: last week, Geoff and I got out together during an evening for the first time; and this week, I enjoyed some daylight hours by myself - all the while knowing that our kids were in excellent care!

...buying my new iPad!

What's working for us...What's not working for us...

...wow, this week was a tougher one than we've had for a while and so I'd say the emphasis was on things not working terribly well.  One thing that stands out is that two people mentioned to me this week that my boys are pretty wild...one person thought that it might become embarrassing at some point, given that their wildness generally extends to times that we're in public.  This is a tough one for me.  I know that my boys look a little wild at times as they wrestle and cartwheel their way through the aisles of whatever store we happen to be in.  They sound pretty nuts, too, as they laugh and screech their way through our time there.  Lizzie's not far beyond in terms of her activity level...and her voice is louder than both of my boys combined.  The challenge is primarily that I have two boys who are very close in age (16-17 months apart) and who are very closely matched in their physical abilities...oh and did I mention that they have huge amounts of energy to burn??  And I do mean huge.  Plus, they're boys - stereotypically, they can't sit/stand still for very long, and they are very physical.  So what do I do?  It was their wrestling and physical connections that first enabled the boys to develop a bond and now that bond has become pretty darn tight and I'm not sure that I should tangle with it.  But of course, I want to raise them to be respectful young men who know when it's appropriate to act a little crazy and when it's not.  Suggestions?

...the other thing I need to pay more heed to is me.  Specifically, the tone that I set in our house.  I'll talk a little more about this in tomorrow's post, but for now I'll just say that I think I need to work a little on my attitude and priorities.