Teaching Carter

I decided to return to the blog. I figure when I need encouragement I can go back and read my own words.

We are in our second week on using an online public school. It has been and will continue to be an adjustment. Alyssa is a serious student. She wants a plan and she wants to stick to it. She sits still does her work and then when everything is done she is ready to do other things. Carter is a different story. He is a boy and doesn't want to sit still and he wants to take breaks all the time. He also likes to make things up about what he is learning to make it funny.

Today I am teaching him science and it was about temperatures. He sees a picture of Anders Celsius and says, "Look it's George Washington!" I told him he was wrong so then he says, "Mommy, his hair looks like a sheep." This then started a 5 minute diversion about sheep and jokes about his hair being fluffy. We got back on the subject and took the temperatures of different things using the thermometer and how to read the thermometer and finished our lesson. If this had been Alyssa there would have been no diversion. I am learning how boys and girls learn differently and how to adapt. Everyday I get the opportunity to be patient and let each learn the way is best for them and that is something to be thankful for.

She's listening...a little too well.

Today in the car I was cut off and almost hit for like the third time in one day. I said out loud that people are driving crazy today. Alyssa said, "Then why don't you drive crazy too?" I told her that two wrongs don't make a right and then she asked what that means. I went on to explain what it meant. Fast forward 2 hours and the boy next door is practicing his trumpet. (We live in a half double.) I hear him often and it almost nevers bothers me. He needs to practice after all. Anyway I just learned today that Alyssa is going to have to practice playing a recorder 15 minutes a day. Can you say torture?! So the boy is practicing next door and I say jokingly to Brian, "I'll just let Alyssa practice in here because if I have to hear the trumpet they can hear the recorder."

Of course Alyssa comes in from behind me. She heard every word...of course. She then proceeds to say, "But Mommy I thought you said two wrongs don't make a right." I then tell her I was just kidding and she says, "Oh I know but that was funny."

How is it that she doesn't listen when I say clean your room or leave your brother alone but hears every not so great thing that comes out of my mouth?

The sounds from the backseat

So today in the car Alyssa and Carter were playing with a moose from Build a Bear. They were pretending the moose was a baby and they were the mom and dad. Everytime it was "daddy's" turn to hold the baby it would pee and would need a diaper change. So he would hand the baby back to "mommy" and she would change her. Eventually "mommy" got tired of letting the baby go to "daddy" because it would dirty it's diaper. So the last time I said from the front,
"I think it's the daddy's turn to change the diaper." Daddy changed very willingly. This whole conversation was beyond funny. What really got me was when Carter said he thinks the baby needs a brother and that when they got home they would get Alvin. Alvin happens to be the chipmunk he made at Build a Bear a while back. Then Carter added, "He's a good man." What? Where did he hear that one from?

These kids are so entertaining!

Mommy is starting to have the blues.

Last night I was having troubles sleeping. I kept thinking about Carter going to Kindergarten. This year Milton Union is going to all day everyday Kindergarten. So here are some of the thoughts going through my head.

He's too little to ride a big school bus. I pray he doesn't get lost in the sea of kids and get turned around and then not be able to find his class. I pray his older sister is nice and shows him to class. Oh my he has to walk through the Junior High hallway to go to lunch, I pray he doesn't get knocked over by a middle schooler not paying attention. What if he cries? When he went to Preschool at CLC I could go check on him. I can't do that when he goes to Kindergarten. Will he be shy or will he open up in class to his teachers and classmates? How will he reach that hook to put his backpack up in his locker, it seems too high. Will he find his bus to get home? How will he get up in the bus because those are big steps?! Will he go to bed in time to get enough sleep? Can he make it through a whole day, 5 days a week.

Okay so this is running through my head and I know most of the answers already. He has to wear a tag the first couple of weeks with his name, address, bus number and teacher name. There are people helping the Kindergarteners get to the bus and to class. They even dismiss them before all other students so they can get on the buses first. I know Alyssa will be nice to him. I know his teacher will help him if he cries and over all I know he will be just fine. I mean you would think I would not be doubting so much since Alyssa has already been through this stuff. My mother reminded me that I was anxious when Alyssa first went to school too. I just don't remember it being this tough. He is my baby though. I mean how can my baby be old enough for Kindergarten? Really!

Then we have Alyssa going into 4th grade. I didn't think it was such a big deal until we went to Open House tonight. All the 4th and 5th graders have classes upstairs and I have never been upstairs before tonight. We went up there and it looked more like a middle school than an elementary. The expectations are higher and they get half of their subjects with one teacher and the other half with another. They are preparing them for middle school is what the teacher told me. WAIT! What did she say? I cannot possibly have a daughter old enough to need to prepare for middle school! Where has the time gone? I was just in school not that long ago. This just can't be happening!

I have been told time and time again that my children will be grown in the blink of an eye, mostly by my Granny. I believed her everytime.

It was a week...

So I realized it has been over a week since I had blogged and I started this thing to have a record of what goes on in my life. I figured it was time to update especially since the person who told me I should journal my life has been on my mind a whole bunch this week.

Last weekend had the really good and the really bad. Last Saturday morning my Granny went to be with the Lord. She lived to be 90! How amazing! That was the really bad (at least for me because it was good for her.) The really good was seeing the preschoolers sing at church. I love my job and I love all 100 plus preschoolers I work with. Of course many of them had that deer in the headlight look being up on the platform with the bright lights and hundreds of people watching but it doesn't matter if they sang or did the motions to the song. See they are preschoolers so they can just stand there and they are as cute as can be.

Monday was the viewing so more sadness. Alyssa had a rough time and of course Carter didn't really get it. Carter was very matter of fact about the whole thing. He said things like, "Granny is in heaven with Jesus" and "When is she coming back from heaven?" Alyssa cried a bunch and was quite sad but what a blessing too. I mean how many people have great great grandchildren at their funeral grieving them because they loved them so much!

Tuesday was just awful! I took Carter to the doctor because he had been coughing pretty badly for the past day and a half. I would normally wait it out a bit but I felt an undeniable nudge to take him (that would be God nudging.) Anyway it turned out to be pneumonia but we caught it early. Then there was the funeral which was more sadness on a whole different level then I have experienced before. We then came home to get more bad news from friends and then news that Brian's grandfather is not doing well at all.

The week had to get better from there! Thursday Carter had soccer practice and praise the Lord he didn't cough once during practice. In fact he is doing so much better in such a short amount of time! Thank you God for answering that prayer quickly! Friday was time with my family from out of state and it was nice to just hang out and not cry for once that week.

That is the bulk of the week in a nutshell. Now onto the next...

Alyssa the Philosopher

Last night on the way home from church Alyssa was just full of questions and comments. This is a usual thing for a Wednesday night and I believe this is due to the fact that I am usually extremely tired from a long work day. Anyway Alyssa first asked me if God was a boy or a girl. She thinks he is a boy because we call Him Father. I explained that God is just God, not male or female and backed it up with some scripture. She seemed to accept my answer but then said, "But Jesus is a boy."

The girl loves to ask though provoking questions when I am at my most tired. So then came the next statement. It went something like this...

Mom I don't believe this but what if God isn't real? That would mean nothing is real because God made everything but nothing is something.

WHAT?! How am I suppose to respond to that? So I said, "Alyssa, I don't even know how to respond to that. Have you been taking philosophy classes at summer camp?" "No mom. What is philosophy class?" "Don't worry about it Alyssa."

Then it was blissfully silent. No more questions...for now.

Sick

Nobody likes being sick but I will take a cold any single day of the year over having a stomach bug. Getting a stomach flu seems to be becoming a every summer occurance for me and I do get flu shots. I always chalk it up to occupational hazard and as hard as this is to believe, I will take getting a stomach flu once a year rather then give up my job. God has given a burden for caring for preschoolers no matter how many germs they may pass on to me.

Anyway back to the real reason for this entry...

Brian has not been feeling well either but for a different reason. He has been very dizzy all week which makes it quite hard to do his job. He went to the doctor yesterday and she has him do all these things and kind of makes a lot of "huh?" noises then and goes and gets the other doctor in the practice. She comes in and does the same things and makes a lot of "huh?" noises. Not exactly what you want to hear. So they take some blood and tell him to call them by 10am tomorrow if they have not called him. This is great. I can barely move off the couch and my husband has something wrong with him but they have no idea what it is and I can't go to the doctor with him because I can't move off the couch.

This morning comes and the doctor sends him to get a cat scan. Brian is telling me they will finally find the giant tumor he has always tried to convince me he has had. For the entire time I have known Brian, everytime he is sick he says it is because of a tumor. Obviously it is a joke but this time since a cat scan was involved I did not find it very funny. In the end he has enlargement of his membranes from an infection, most likely sinus related. So as of now all he needs is an antibiotic. Praise God!

Now if you think being sick is horrible, which it is, then don't try both parents being sick at the same time. My poor children were making PB&J and cereal for every meal. Thankfully I had cut up a cantelope before I got sick so there was some fruit for them to eat. There was good that came out of both of us being sick at the same time though. It was obvious I was sick but with Brian it wasn't as obvious. If I had been fine I think the kids would have noticed how Brian felt. I also think Alyssa would have been very worried about him because she is old enough to realize people don't just get dizzy all the time. Instead she was more worried about Carter not saying, "Mommy is puking again!" because she cannot stand that word. She says blah blah instead. I guess if I had to get sick to take the attention off of Brian, I would do it again. I mean that is what you do for your children right?