The Magic School House

A Headache

I have migraines. I started having them when I was about 16. I stopped when I was pregnant with my first child. Now at 38 and having weaned my last child, I started having them again. They started in March. At first it was just one, then another, then five a month. Now I am the proud owner of an astounding two mingraines a week. They have taken over my life.

I had one yesterday. My head feels bruised from the experience. My brain seems to still ache from the trauma. I am having them so often that I don't even have sympathy for my own pain any more. How can I expect sympathy from those around me? I want to tell myself to just "Buck up and quit complaining." I want to just crumple onto the floor and cry at the thought of getting hit by another train of a migraine. I know that there is a maelstrom out there with my name on it, just waiting to catch me and pull me under - back into the pain.

My new medicine helps, but it doesn't take away all of the pain. It doesn't make it quit hurting. It really just takes the pain a little further away from me. I still feel it. Its just futher away, maybe easier to deal with.

I'm still trying to find out what the trigger is. I am terrified that there isn't one. I am afraid that I am just going to devovle into a constant state of pain.

11:45 PM - Saturday, June 9 - comments {1} - post comment

Larger Families

Apparently, I am slow at work today and reading way too much news. So here is my last news link before I start making lesson plans and grocery lists.

It is a postitive article on larger families. It also includes some positive - at least non-negative comments about homeschooling.

Larger Families Growing

4:50 PM - Sunday, October 8 - comments {1} - post comment

The B word

Okay the buck stops here.

We are going on a budget. NOW.

Our spending has spun out of control.

First step. Get the money I have allocated for groceries and eating in cash. When it is gone, it is gone. We will not go over budget.

There I feel better now.

2:54 PM - Saturday, September 16 - comments {1} - post comment

My sweet hubby

My darling was reading my blog this morning and asked if I don't think he is involved with our kids since I haven't put much about him on here. I guess I hadn't thought to add entries about him since I try to keep this about our educational journey and not about our personal lives. However, our personal lives are a big part of our educational journey.

Right now I am at work. My dear hubby is at home with our kids. Three days a week he is a stay-at-home dad so that I can work full-time. It has been really hard on our relationship, but we both agree that it is important to have somebody home with our kids. We are beginning a financial plan to live off of one income and save two years salary. After that, we will drop down to just him working and have a safe, comfortable cushion and actually spend time together again. I miss him and miss being together as a family.

We try really hard to have family time as often as possible. We have dinner together during the week when he works and breakfast together on weekends when I work. I think that our time is more intentional than it would be if we had a more normal schedule.

I don't write much about him in my blog. I think its probably because we don't have much "overlap" and what time we do have is jealously guarded. He is wonderful with the kids. I think our kids have a much richer life because he is such a big part of it.

Since many fathers don't get the opportunity to be the primary caregiver for their kids, they miss out on many of the little day-to-day miracles and joys that make childhood so special. My darling gets to really enjoy the feeling of sleepy hugs, long walks, endless questions, silly games, feeding birds, dressing little girls, potty training, stories read a million times, being the one to fix the owies and mend broken hearts. These are the joys that stay-at-home moms and dads get to live. Our lives are richer because of our children. My life is sweeter because of my hubby.

1:16 PM - Sunday, July 30 - comments {2} - post comment

Assault or bad parenting?

Here I go yet again...
Warning this is rant! Please don't read if you don't like controversy.

I am a very strong believer in the right to privacy and in the rights of parents to raise their children, but where does that stop?

While we were the amusement park on vacation, I saw some parenting that should be considered criminal.

I saw a dad in a gift shop tell his son that was about six or seven years old to stop doing something. Then the dad turned around and hit the child hard on the back of the head.

Later in another gift shop, I saw a mom tell her son to get down off of a rack he was climbing on. She then grabbed a hand full of his hair and pulled him out of the gift shop.

If these things had happened between two adults, the victim could have filed assault charges against the perpetrator. However, these victims were children, and their assailants were the people that should be caring for them.

I do not believe in spanking my children, but there is a huge difference between a caring parent thoughtfully disciplining a child by spanking and a tired, frustrated adult assaulting a child.

9:07 PM - Saturday, July 22 - comments {1} - post comment

School Bus Assault

A couple of weeks ago, while watching tv in bed, I saw a horrifying story about an assault on a school bus. Two high school kids beat up another kid. The assaulted child had skipped two grades so he was younger than the other kids on the bus were. The news showed film from the school bus camera of the assault.

The things that struck me about the story were not just that bullies beat up a smaller kid. It was that the bus driver didn’t stop the bus to try to stop the assault. She apparently didn’t even report it. Also, the other kids on the bus all sat in their seats and pretended to not notice the violence happening in front of them.

What is going on in these schools that allow something like that to happen? Nobody tried to help. Nobody, not even the adult who was in charge.

I recently read Night, by Elie Wiesel and was haunted by the images of the surrounding people ignoring the starving victims. This news show gave me the same feeling of sadness at the fate of the human race. How can people sit by and allow violence and injustice to happen right in front of them?

I want my kids to learn to think for themselves and to stand up for what is right, not ignore a person being beaten. Apparently, schools are doing a great job of teaching kids to sit still and be quiet, but that is not a lesson I want my kids to learn.

5:51 PM - Friday, June 30 - comments {3} - post comment

Potty Training

Warning: This is a Rant

And is NOT in anyway aimed at someone with medical issues.

Thanks Tracy

When my now 16yo turned 2, I was working and wanted to put him into a "preschool" type group care. They required that he be potty-trained before he could attend. So, I potty trained him.

When my 5yo was about 16mo, she started signing "change" when her diaper needed to be changed. A couple of months later, we noticed that she was signing change, before she needed to be changed. So we got her a potty and taught her to use it.

My 20mo, is a whole different experience so we'll skip that for now as I am ranting about traditional potty-training gone crazy.

Do you know that now, no one requires kids to be potty trained at 2? Now people think you are pushing kids if they don't continue to poop in their pants until they are at least 3. Five is considered still within the normal range. FIVE? Come on. What's next, are we going to move the requirement up to college - "Sorry you must potty train your child before she can be admitted to Harvard."

Perfectly reasonable caring moms have told me that it’s just too much trouble to try to potty train. Personally, I like to have potty-trained kids. I hate the smell of poop. I don't want my kids to sit in it. I don't want to have to clean it off their little bottoms. These same moms, would be horrified if their kids picked up poop or splashed around in pee, but its okay for them to SIT in it? Walk around with it taped to their little bottoms?

Disgusting.

Diaper companies want you to think that to do otherwise is harmful to your child. Do you think they care about your kids or their profits? Really. When did we give the rearing of our children over to corporations?

3:23 PM - Friday, June 30 - comments {2} - post comment

Description
A homeschool and life blog about the adventures of one mom and three kids (my ds Handsome who is 17, my dd Beautiful who is 6, and my dd SweetPea who is 2) and a wonderful husband (known here as hubby). I work full-time three days a week. Hubby works 5 days a week. I am a relaxed classical homeschooler that is making it all up as I go along.

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