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

Advanced Placement

 Not to brag or anything, but I think we are raising some very advanced children.  At two-years-of-age, our girls have already worked out the art of manipulation and deflection.  It's the antithesis of endearing.   They went missing the other day - the girls did.  That's never a good situation.  They were in the house, and I knew they were in the house, but I couldn't see or hear them.  Silence is the loudest alarm system.  Fischer took action and found them both in my bathroom.   "MOM!" I met them in the hall.  Carter was covered in clumps and blobs of hand cream. "Emi did it," was her unsolicited response.   "No," I told her.  "I think you  did it." That night I got ready for bed and pulled out my one "self-care" splurge - my face cream .  It was in my drawer where I always keep it.  The lid was screwed on.  And it was empty, wiped clean.  "EmmmeerrrrrSON!" Guilty.  They were both ...
2 comments
Read more

Little Bit Dicey

 This might be a little controversial.  I try to steer clear of such topics in this space, but it needs to be said.  Take it as you will, but know that it comes from a place of love, concern, and respect.  Here it is: there is a right  way to cut an onion. Now, I'm not saying this to try and get anyone's dander up.  I'm just saying it's a subject that needs to be addressed in kitchens across America.  There may be more than one right way to skin a cat (I can't say I've tested that), but the same does not hold true for onions.  Please, you can teach an old dog new tricks - learn how to properly cut an onion.  It will save you time, frustration, onion tears, and possibly a finger.     Now, since I'm still sitting here on blogspot like it's 2003, I'm not going to post any how-to videos, but I'll do the next best thing.  I'll paste a link right here .    Check it out.  Practice it.  Make it a habit.  T...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Need A Cinderella

 I like to describe our house as very "lived in."  It sounds better than "dirty."  It is dirty.  And messy.  I clean all day long, but you'd never know.  My friend recently told me she hires a house cleaner.  It sounds dreamy, but it wouldn't work for us.  The cleaner would never be able to leave.  She'd never be done.  It's fine.  It's a phase.  Probably.   We were supposed to have guests for dinner the other week.  I know - it's a bold move inviting people over while we are in this stage of life.  Nonetheless, we did.  I was trying to get ahead of the mess while the kids were in bed and cleaned my floors the night before the dinner party.  The day of the dinner, everybody was sick so we had to postpone.   I decided I wasn't going to let a clean floor go to waste.  I was going to enjoy it for at least a weekend.  The challenge, I told myself, was simply to sweep things up after...
1 comment
Read more