Hay Sings and Cow Poke

Or reason #242 why I homeschool

     Since I fell off the history wagon sometime in November, I thought that it would be a good idea to read back through The Story of tlhe World Vol. 2 to where history dropped off the schedule.  I read a chapter aloud to the Crafter every day.  Wild Thing has been listening in--more or less.  I'm wasn't sure if he was getting anything out of it. Yesterday we read about the Battle of Hastings.   The Crafter and Wild Thing listened.  When the story was over, Wild Thing ran from the room.  He usually runs from the room as soon as his required listening is over, but this time he came back with his toy knights.  He set up his red knights up on a stool and his blue knights on the floor. 

Me:  What are you doing?

Wild Thing:  Playing Hay Sings

Me:  What army is on the stool?

Wild Thing:  Harold is on the hill and William is on the floor.

Me:  Who gets the dragon?

Wild Thing:  William gets the dragon and Harold gets the Cow Poke.

Me:  Cow Poke?

Wild Thing:  This.  (holds up toy catapult)

The Crafter:  (laughing so hard she can barely get the words out)  It's a Cat-a-pult, not a Cow Poke.

Wild Thing:  Cow Poke. (flies toy dragon to the stool and knocks down Harold and his army)

Back to Work

     I have to face facts--vacation is officially over.  We got back from our annual trip from Myrtle Beach yesterday--just ahead of the Republican Presidential debate.  We had a good time.  The weather was warm enough for the children (not the parents) to play in the ocean.  We spent a lot of time at the indoor pool and lazy river.  Myrtle Beach in January is great.  There are no crowds.  The resorts are Motel 6 prices.  Most of the touristy, waste your money, stuff is closed.  Nothing to do but play with the kids.

     Bradford Academy is slowly, but surely getting back into full swing.   The Crafter covers the basics daily.  The extras are suffering, but that's usual.  Wild Thing is beginning "preschool" which consists of about 10 minutes of letter/sound practice and a coloring page or worksheet of some sort each day.   He also has to listen to the read-aloud part of history.   Actually working with two students while dealing with a 2 year old is proving more challenging than I thought.  How does a mom of many manage?

     I go back to college teaching tomorrow.  I have 2 chemistry labs this semester.  I am not particularly looking forward to teaching this time around.  No matter how many times I do it, I dread the start of new classes.  I always get over it.  I hate writing the syllabus and meeting the first class.  Once I get going, I'm fine.  I did manage to do a decent job of teaching math to motorcycle mechanics last semester, but that is another story for another post.

Bye Bye Bop Bop

My girls were both pacifier addicts. The Crafter enjoyed hers until age 3.  She named her pacifier Bop. The name stuck. The Christmas after she turned 3, we informed her that Santa Claus was taking her bops to the neighbor's new baby because he needed them and she didn't because she was a big girl. The bops disappeared and everything was fine.

When Wild Thing came alone, we discovered that he was a strict thumb man. No pacifier would pass his lips and how dare you even suggest such a thing. Fortunately, he quit thumb sucking as his teeth came in.

Now we move on to Sweetie. Sweetie was a die hard bop addict. She even went so far as to call her pacifiers “Bop Bop” rather than Bop to indicate the strength of her affection. But when Sweetie turned two, it was time to phase out Bop Bop. We started only allowing bop at nap time, bedtime, and on really long trips. Somehow she would manage to find a bop, no matter how many I took away. I am convinced that there is a layer of pacifiers buried in the strata of junk in this house.

But last Sunday, the last bop mysteriously disappeared. I don't know where any are. We had 4 last week. Anyway, I have put Sweetie to bed bopless for the past 3 nights. Guess what? She sleeps just as well without it. She doesn't need it anymore.

Oh, she looks longingly at pictures of babies happily sucking their pacifiers and says “Baby Bop Bop. Me Bop Bop?” 

I reply “No Sweetie, bop bop is gone. I can't find it.”

Sweetie says “All wite.”

My baby is growing up.