Tu-be or Not Tu-be

My little patriot--she found this headpiece soon after we were finished watching "Liberty's Kids".

Yes, we watch television in our house. As anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis (or talks to me in person for more than 2 minutes) knows, we school at home. Sometimes television is part of the day's curriculum. We've learned that within our family, too much TV can seem like the brain has been sucked right out of the body. But that is where our family rule about "everything in moderation" comes into play.

I hope that before anyone passes judgment on what they think they know about home education, time is spent talking to a child who is allowed the freedom to explore the world their way. Talk to them. You won't have to "dumb down" your speech or avoid using big words. They will have a full conversation with you (usually involving Legos and Star Wars and Dora the Explorer or Diego).

Having the freedom for my children to explore who they are at any given moment and taking advantage of that freedom is one thing I am grateful for today.

Now....it's time for Disney's Playhouse, so I have to go.

Ciao!

Happy Love Day

I'm not the only one who has renamed this original Hallmark Holiday. My friend, T, and I spent some time talking about this yesterday and the topics of discussion all around me were the nuances of Valentine's Day in the schools, both public and private.

In my niece's private school, the kids were asked to bring Valentines for each child. My sister couldn't find any boxed Valentine's that were not commercial in some way (SpongeBob Squarepants or Barbie Princesses) so she found some cardstock at JoAnn's and we spent the day cutting out hearts for my niece to decorate. That in itself was a great experience for me. I got some time to spend with my sister and the kids all had a great time playing dress-up.


My niece, "D", was looking at the list sent home by the teacher of all the kids in the class and she was giving me bits of information about each as she was making valentines for them. One child is mean to her and to all the other kids in the class. He always talks about stealing all of his Dad's money". She also doesn't like that he teases her about her relationship with my son. (Boy & D were "womb mates" of a sort and are inseparable.) I have had people tell me that this is "normal" socialization for children. Normal??? negative attitudes and snotty comments all the time? I wouldn't want give that kid a valentine, either. But, in this day and age of political correctness, there's no leaving anyone out.

I think I have the greatest MIL (mother-in-law). She sent packages to the kids for Love Day. In it were the coolest treasures! For each, she found these really interesting card games in little lunch box tins, a new t-shirt and--books! Books are the best. S's were painting books and N's were classics (yay!!!). Yep, my MIL totally rocks. She called to see if they enjoyed them. How could they not? There was paper strewn all over the room! And got to have a few words with each of the kids before they shooed themselves off to fight over who was going to play their game first!

She and I had a great conversation about how much she enjoys reading these blog entries. I am so thrilled and inspired (especially to watch more closely what I write about--Hee-hee!) My audience is more varied and diverse than I originally thought. (Hi Mary!!!)

On some days I feel the distance between our family and our extended family more strongly than on other days. For those days, I am very grateful for the telephone, internet, e-cards and regular cards. For all this "technological closeness", one would think it would be very difficult to feel those large spaces. But, we do. So, what do we do? We just love everyone wherever they are.

Happy Love Day!

~~Mama