I once doubted that I would be able to have the patience to homeschool my children. I think God has really worked on me with that, although I am sure more work is yet to be done. There are some things that I seem to be able to do with the boys and to teach them and we do very very well at it. There are others that don't seem to go as smoothly. It could be a combination of who is tired or not feeling their best or just not in the mood to do something, etc. I am pretty sure that most homeschoolers deal with this type of thing on a regular basis. Sometimes we might not be in the mood to learn and sometimes we might not be in the mood to teach. I'm sure regular schools probably struggle with this too at times.
There are times where I have seen Nick take instruction from the dad easier than he had taken it from me a bit earlier. I was not sure if that was due to the way I approached it VS the way the dad approached it, the particular mood Nick was in at the time or just that he takes instruction from the dad easier than he does from me. I'm still not sure about that, although I do fine with teaching him sometimes. He is fiercely independent and wants to try to do everything without help. I have learned to back off, give him his space and wait until he asks for help on many things. And he does ask for help if he needs it.
As I said, I know God still has His work cut out, in making me what I need to be in order to be able to teach and instruct the boys. But I trust He will do it. He has already helped me become a more patient mom and, over time, He has fostered in me an excitement about teaching the boys new things and looking forward to learning myself. I think the excitement that I have about learning along with them will help them to enjoy learning more too.
Today we went to The Apple Tree and bought the ABC train floor puzzle that I was wanting to get for the boys. I also purchased a dot to dot book that I thought we might start trying to do a bit of sometime. I will start by creating my own, very simple, dot to dot pictures for the boys and then, when they get the hang of it, we will break out this book.
We also went to the grocery store today and bought a ton of groceries. My niece, her husband and their one and a half year old are coming to stay with us Thursday and Friday nights. My mom, sister and another niece will also be here, staying with us on Friday night. I am really looking forward to it and I know the boys will enjoy it. I spent the afternoon putting fresh sheets on the upstairs beds and now I am washing the ones I took off. I still need to do some dusting up there and clean up one of the bathrooms, but that won't take long and I will do it tomorrow.
We got some honey turkey at the grocery store and the boys both wanted a piece of it right away. They normally look forward to getting a cookie at the deli counter, so I was glad that they asked for the turkey instead today. When we got home, they each had half of a turkey sandwich, a baby tomato, some carrots, two strawberries and a couple of chips. They were really hungry! They went down for naps a little late so they are still sleeping.
Today is the husband's last day of his two week hospital duty. Whew! I'm glad that is over. This was the toughest one yet. He worked a lot of hours and several evenings he had to return to the hospital, after recently arriving home for the day. And most of that time, the boys and I all had bad colds. We are all feeling better but the husband may be coming down with it now. He has Friday off so it will be a nice, relaxing weekend and we will do some resting. We will also have a date night on Friday night, as my sister, niece and mom have offered to take care of the boys while we go out. I am looking forward to that. It's been a while and it will be good for us to get out.
I can't believe Easter is already here. The flowering trees here are all in bloom right now and it is so beautiful. I looked at all of the Easter stuff for kids at Walmart today and ended up deciding to get the boys these little $5 wheel barrows for their Easter gift. They don't need any more candy and they will enjoy pushing the wheel barrows around outside this summer. They love pushing their little lawn mower around outside, although they have issues sometimes with taking turns. They are getting better about it though. Today, as I was putting Ben's shoes on, getting ready to go shopping, Nick said to me 'Nick's turn'. So they are definitely getting the idea of taking turns now, thank goodness....not that they always want to do it but, you know, they are two:).
Yesterday we made a slide out of a cardboard box. I cut the box open so that it could lay flat on the floor and then I put pillows under it, thinking the boys would enjoy running their trucks and cars over it. They really liked it so we moved it to the library/playroom and put one end of it on the play table. I was still thinking it was for their trucks and cars. It wasn't long before the boys were sliding down it themselves. Turns out a small stool was sitting under it, right next to the table and was providing support, although when I checked it out, it didn't look as if it would be very comfortable for them, as they slid down. So I put some pillows around and on top of the small stool and it supported the slide even better. They have had such a blast, sliding down it in every direction they can think of, including head first on their bellies and backs and also while sitting backwards. They have also had fun sliding their trucks and cars and anything else they can think of down the slide and they were excited to show the dad, when he got home from work yesterday. It turned out to be a wonderful bit of entertainment during an otherwise cold, rainy day. But today it is sunny and warm so we will get outside to play this afternoon.
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