the days are . . . shiny

It’s been Birthday Central around here. Noah woke up the day his YMCA birthday party was scheduled with a fever of 103.5. We quickly rescheduled that party. We’d planned a follow-up family party at the Indianapolis Chuck E. Cheese. That was rescheduled as well. We called to change the cake size, canceled our pizza and macaroni orders, and hunkered down while Noah made his zombie-eyed way through his fever, then Gabriel caught his cold, and then Nathan.

But our friends and family wouldn’t let a birthday go by uncelebrated, so my in-laws visited on Fever Day 2. We had presents and cake. The following Friday, Noah’s best friends threw him a surprise party at their playdate. Cupcakes and presents. Over the weekend, we made that trip to Indianapolis and did cake, presents and games at Chuck E. Cheese. This weekend, on Valentine’s Day, we’ll have that swimming party. Happy birthday to Noah!

I find all of this terribly amusing. We’d scheduled the Y party specifically to avoid the two week birthday. Still, this has worked out for the best. Noah had no trouble transitioning to Four. He told me today he hated being Three. He’s even started getting himself up at night to use the potty!

Yesterday, we spent an hour or so picking out books at Borders for Noah to buy with his birthday money. He chose this book, which made me happier than I can express. I love when he picks out learning books, and we have had great fun with what Noah calls “the tool book” by the same author/illustrator, as well as a book about mosques Noah loves to look at when we pull out his mosque building block set. I actually had him put his first choice back when I saw it was $12 less on Amazon. I told him Mommy and Daddy would order it for him online (we did) because it was a special book (meaning if we had seen it before we bought his birthday gifts, it’s the gift we would have gotten him). We waded through the toys (what’s the deal with the Kids’ books section being 3/4 toys in Borders? WTH?), to the classics on the back wall. Noah chose:

There’s No Such Thing as Dragons by Jack Kent

The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendack

The Snowman (WOW!!!) by Raymond Briggs

and Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

They cost him all but $3 of his birthday money, but he didn’t bat an eyelash. I guess it’s okay with me if he invests in his own children’s library!

G has also enjoyed the festivities, even though they always keep him up through nap time. Right now he’s sleeping away. Indulge me–it was wonderful looking at a book with him in his rocker. He touched all the pages and asked, “Book? Book?” when I put the book away. Then he snuggled against me and put his head under his blankie. He fell asleep so fast I was surprised by his snores. It was just as well. Noah was waiting patiently for his own special Mommy time.

I have a reading list as tall as I am. I want to post more about that. I’ll put up a list of the books tomorrow. If anyone’s still reading, let me know if you’ve read these books, what you think, and if you have any suggestions. In the meantime, please read “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” by friend and fellow writer Alexander Weinstein. It’s up on The Spire now. Don’t forget to leave a comment. Writers love feedback!

February 10th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Noah woke up and tore down the hall to our room shouting for Nathan because of a nightmare. About this nightmare, he said the following:

There was a skunk and it got into our house. It was out of stinky stuff. It had chocolate milk in it’s sprayer. It sprayed some chocolate milk into my mouth. It didn’t taste good. No, it didn’t. But it was a nice skunk. But then all of the other skunks came into our house. They were the skunk’s friends. They had stinky stuff.

Hmm.

In other news, yesterday was Noah’s fourth birthday! We had donuts, went to the library, and tried geocaching. Noah loves geocaching treasure hunting. On our way out in the morning, we drove past a dead skunk. I suspect that combined with the excitement of an amazing day led to the above.

February 3rd, 2010 | Tags: as told by noah, dreams | Category: as told by noah, fears | Leave a comment

Nathan says there is a certain “fanboy-ism” to people’s response to homeschooling: people were forced to endure school so they believe our children must be forced to endure it, too. I find this type of thinking to be sad and disheartening.

We put a lot of hope in the Montessori method, preparing ourselves mentally for a huge financial sacrifice if the school turned out to fit Noah’s learning needs. When it didn’t, I was crushed. I really wanted to see Noah thrive. Once I accepted that he was withering instead, I got over it and embraced our original goal: homeschooling.

What I’d really like to do is unschool Noah, and we are currently in the deschooling process. I think it will take a long time to free Noah from the trauma of having been to school. Fortunately, Montessori teaches children to uncover and pursue their own interests through repetition and extension of focus. At this point, it’s all about finding a balance between home and television–it’s easy to rely on a TV when your child doesn’t read on his own yet and is generally cranky in the afternoons.

If you are interested in learning more about unschooling and what a typical day and week would look like, read this article. Read the comments as well–you’ll see what I’m referring to above. Take some time to peruse the site, Family Hack , as well. When I come across resources and articles like these, I’m only more excited to be a homeschooler.

January 29th, 2010 | Category: homeschooling, montessori | Comments (3)

January 26th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (3)