Skip to main content

Teacher of the Year



We are officially a home school family.  It wasn't what we planned, but I don't think anyone planned for 2020, so here we are.  

I decided to start on September 1st.  Ross was already back at work, we needed some structure in our day, and it also meant our first week would only be four days long.  That seemed like a bonus.  

We spent the week prior talking to Sawyer about school and trying to pump him up about getting started.  I wanted to make it feel like a first day of school.  We bought supplies, talked about things we'd be doing, and I let him choose the dinner menu for his first day.  

He picked cougar.  

I SAID cougar.  

One of Ross' friends gifted him a cougar roast and some stew meat.  We're so lucky.  And I got to figure out how to cook it.  I'm so lucky.  I cooked it to its second death.  Cougar leather.  We called it brain food, and the boys demolished it.  I hope it works. 

Day 1: I got up at 5:45 so I could get breakfast started, lunches made and a shower....I got up at 5:45 so I could have coffee before the house erupted.  

I had created a lesson plan the night before and had a pretty good idea of how I wanted the rhythm of the day to go.  I thought Sawyer would be excited to use his new supplies and work in his new workbooks.  He wasn't.  I thought I had enough planned out to take us through to lunch time.  I didn't.  We were both relieved.   

Day 2: I hit the snooze once, but was still up before the kids came out of their room.  We started "school" after spending a couple of morning hours at Grammy and Papa's house.  Turns out, Mama needed to run a few miles.  

Day 3: I'm not sure how many times we hit snooze, but the kids were up.   I decided showers were overrated.  The boys were lucky I brushed my teeth. We got to work on the lesson plans I had created the night before.  Mid-way through, I decided art was more fun than handwriting so we went ahead and made some adjustments to said lesson plan.  I think I'm getting the hang of this kindergarten thing.    

Day 4: School got cancelled.    

This week we learned that it is essential to lesson plan the night before each school day.  Sawyer prefers to pay attention to anything but what is in front of him.  Fischer wants ALL the school work.  Learning new things can be hard and that's okay.  If glue can be involved, it should be.  Vowels are "sooooo boring."  Sawyer already "knows all of this stuff" even before he knows what this stuff is.  Everything is a race.    

We are going to be spending a lot of money on teacher gifts this year.  Sawyer's teacher is very excited.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pink Stinks

Our girls, like most four-year-old girls, love pink.  And purple.  And sparkly things, unicorns, butterflies, lizards and cats.  But especially pink.  Their brothers aren't so fond of pink.  They prefer the color dirt.  I know this because it's what they have chosen for the color of our walls, windows, light switches and their socks.   "Do you like pink?"  Emerson asked Fischer one day not long ago. "No." "Why?" "Because pink stinks !" Cue 'angry tears and screaming.' This of course delighted her brother who began using the line anytime he wanted to see her cry.  Which was often.  It didn't change her passion for the color, however.  She still demanded the pink plate, pink cup, pink shirt, pink shoes, and pink gum if she had the choice.  Because pink is the best when you're four.   Fast forward a couple of weeks.  The girls were collecting pieces of garbage off the van floor.  Why?  I don't know, b...

Triple Threat

 People think we are raising twins, but they're wrong.  We actually have triplets: Emerson, Carter, and Carterror.  It's true.  Carterror doesn't hang around often, but when the days are long and naps have been missed, she comes out swinging.   Today, when we should have been napping, we ran errands.  We needed some grain for our cows, so before picking up the boys from school, we stopped at the feed store.  The girls spent a little time looking at all the fish, birds, and pets they have for sale.  Immediately, after telling them not to touch the tanks, Carter tried to go fishing.  That's when I realized Carterror had arrived.  I called her name to stop her and realized her shirt was exceptionally lumpy.   "What's in there?" I asked, pointing to her newly developed bosom.   "My kitty," she replied, pulling out a stuffed cat from her sweatshirt.  A minute later, we were walking down an isle of bovine parapher...

Fear Factor

 Did you know that it has been not  scientifically proven that a baby can smell her mother's presence through a closed door.  It's probably the smell of fear that they are actually attuned to, but nonetheless.  I hold my breath and walk on tiptoe past the baby's room and still get busted nearly every time.  My fear is pungent. Besides waking the babies, I have another fear currently in the forefront of my mind.  Don't mind me, this is just another episode of True Confessions.. .  Here it is: the boys are getting so much outside time that they are building up incredible endurance.  It's great really, but it is   becoming  so hard to wear them out. It used to be an hour at the playground and we were golden.  Now, they basically put in an eight-hour workday, and it's just a warm-up!  Does anybody have a treadmill....?  Real school is going to be a bit of an adjustment for the big guy next fall.    Speaking of s...