Greetings from the Baetz Household!

 

What have we been up to this week?  Living, loving and learning! ?  Us too!   We have had several catastrophes this week, but have come out unscathed.  We have been working hard getting our fair entries ready.  This is the first year we have entered our handicrafts into the county fair and the kids are so excited!  I can't wait to post photos.

 

But let me tell you a funny story.  While sitting in a Dr.'s waiting room today, my son and I had to find something to keep us occupied.  It was taking a long time so we started playing a little game:  Name 3 things in the room that start with "A."  Then, name 3 things in the room that start with "B," and so on.  That little game kept us busy up until the letter "R" then we got called into our appointment. 

 

Next, as we sat in the exam room, waiting once again, we started watching the traffic out the window.  Then we started trying to name the type of vehicle and color, as they went zinging by.  It was great fun, and even hard to remember all the names of those colors!  Silver, Grey, Bronze, Gold, Wine, White.  SUV, Pick-up, Mini-van, Camaro, Jeep. Funny, but true. Suddenly, it reminded me of an assignment I had in high school, for my drivers training class.  We were told to sit by a stop sign for a couple of hours and record every car that came to it.  We were told to record if they made a complete stop or a rolling stop.  We had to record which way they turned, and whether or not they used their blinkers correctly, or if they used hand signals.  So my friend and I faithfully sat on a bench above a stop sign in a tourist town.  The cars could only turn left or right.  About 90 percent of the cars didn't stop or use a signal correctly.

 

I am not sure what we were supposed to learn by that.....maybe it was to reinforce using the proper signals or stopping completely at at stop sign.  I don't know.  I remember that I thought it was a pretty ridiculous assignment.  Having gone to school all week, then assigned a weekend project, that was well, busy work.  My son said maybe they wanted to see if we knew how to count!  Hopefully we could at that point. 

 

So was there a difference today in the games I played with my son while "killing time" waiting for the Dr. to arrive?  I think so.  I think we weren't killing the time, we were redeeming it. We were thinking, we were talking together, we were laughing and having fun.  It was either that or whine, and no whining is allowed.  We weren't learning rocket science, but we were together having fun!  Sure, I could have just picked up a magazine and read it while my son stared into space.  But we have had many Dr. visits lately and I just wanted to really spend the time together, really being all there.

 

Back in my years as a public school student, my parents were never there.  I was never there.  We never got to really know each other.  I grieve that.  They were only doing what they thought they had to do.  But we don't have to do that, and we know now that we have a choice!  But the choice to  send our kids to a government school can have dire consequences.  All you have to do is open your eyes, look around.  Read the news.  It is not the best choice,  it is a dangerous place to have your kids---dangerous emotionally, physically and spiritually.  I know there will always be those of you who think it is ok for your family.  All I can do is hope for the best for you, but I have to do what is best for us. 

 

 We choose home.

 

And in the safety of our home (or wherever we are together) we can count cars and play ABC games, and enjoy the closeness we would not have otherwise.

 

Have a happy, Summer week! 

 

 

 

Nancy Baetz is the happy homeschooling Mom of four very creative kids.  Be sure to check out her blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/byhisgraceincolorado.  She will be posting some photos of some very unique creations this week!  Stop by and say hello and leave her a comment.