Thankful Thursday - what "schooling" can look like

(I wrote this on Thursday but am just now finishing it on Friday)

The boys would have started school yesterday if they were still enrolled in the public school. Our district, like most if not all of the public school districts in Kentucky, has opted to begin completely virtual. This would mean that Carter and Calvin would have been on the computer with their class from 9:00-11:30 and then work on other things on their own in the afternoon. During that window of time, they were out on the back deck playing nicely together inventing a new variation of Mario chess that involves a goat, cow, and checkers in addition to the regular characters. We also spent an hour in the backyard, and we read books. I'm loving the flexibility that homeschooling provides. While there will definitely be more structure when we start in a week and a half, it's nice to be in charge of our own schedule and learning. 

Usually, "the first day of school" is such a definitive mark in time. This is the day you put on your first-day-of-school outfit and take a picture in front of the door and go off to start your new grade in school. I say that we're "starting" homeschool the day after Labor Day, but that just means we're starting our curriculum. Technically, we've never "stopped" schooling over the summer. We haven't done workbooks, but that doesn't equate with "school." 

Here's some of the "school" just from yesterday:

• Carter tried to make a dessert by melting a popsicle in a sugar cone. What he didn't anticipate was that the liquid would turn the cone soggy.
• Carter also made a recipe that he wanted to make for us for dinner. It involved brown sugar, flour, eggs, milk, turkey, and hot dogs. It was palatable. I think Carter and I were the only ones who ate ours, though.
• The boys made their Mario chess game variation.
• Calvin put one cup of water in the fridge and one in the freezer to see which one he'd like better.
• Whenever Calvin asks how much time we have until we can go inside, I make him figure out the elapsed time himself by telling him the current time and the time we'll go in.
• Calvin's been my assistant in potty training Cooper. We read books to him while we sat and waited.
• They practiced their piano songs and played around on the piano, too.
• They helped with their younger brothers. We tell them it's training to become a dad. :-)
• We observed lots of bugs in the dirt, including a "grub" that looked like just a shell but squirted when I pressed it.
• Colson's "schooling" involved teaching himself how to climb up on the bench and navigate our backyard.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise...

41,231. making progress in the backyard

41,232. watching the boys' interactions

41,233. small habits

41,234. lots of time outside

41,235. Carter making dinner for us with a recipe he created ("turkey dogs")

41,236. love my students!

41,237. Carter and Calvin making up chess variations

41,238. Mildred Cable and Kamala Harris on audio

41,239. Cooper peeing standing up

41,240. so glad the boys weren't in "school" online today

41,241. Alice, Teresa, Candy, and Yelena on my schedule today

41,242. working on Titus 1 song

41,243. the discipline of early mornings

41,244. Lucas helping with potty training

41,245. Calvin knowing his way around the kitchen

41,246. Calvin helping to get Cooper ready for bed

41,247. "Hey! Pipe down!" -Cooper during Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site

41,248. Cooper's expanding vocabulary

41,249. lots of potty books from the library

41,250. option of curbside pickup for yearbook, library books

41,251. excited about AWANA: Home Edition

41,252. Scott Co. library had book we needed

41,253. love to listen to audiobooks while I'm working

41,254. Colson able to maneuver around the backyard hazards

41,255. visible progress with rocks and weeds

A Swing and a Hit/Miss

(written 4-27-20)

A swing

    and a hit    

        Carter made a list of verses to memorize

    and a miss

        Carter threw a slobbering fit when asked to play a song on the piano

A swing

    and a hit

        Calvin is super helpful with his little brothers and me

    and a miss

        Calvin is also super buggy/touchy with his brothers and me

A swing

    and a hit

        Cooper can consistently count to 10 on his own

    and a miss

        Cooper's first morning of potty training -- 5 (pee/poop in undies) to 0 (pee/poop in potty)

A swing

    and a hit

        Colson's eating more and more "regular" foods

    and a miss

        Colson wasn't ready for the edges of Cheez-its

Such is motherhood

A series of hits and misses

    but the homeruns make up for the strikeouts

    and you can't get a hit if you don't swing

Potty TRAINed (?)

Well, we've finished the 3 day boot camp.  It was not fun in the middle of it, and I was about to quit after 2 days of cleaning up puddles of pee in the bathroom, kitchen, living room, deck (he "made his mark" for sure!).  Part of what was so hard was the intensity of it -- watching him every second for signs that he was about to poop or pee, taking him to the bathroom every half hour or so (even when he cried about leaving his toys), sitting and waiting (and reading) every time he was on the potty, cleaning up accident after accident, being stuck in the house...

But the good news is... he's officially potty-trained!  Here we are, one week later, and he's only had one "puddle accident" after the first two days, and it was outside.  Occasionally, he gets his undies wet, but for the most part, he makes it to the potty in time.  We've even been doing undies when going out and at naptime, and he's been dry every night the past 4 nights in his pull-ups, so we might be doing undies at night soon, too.  He's been pooping about every other day, and we can always tell because he needs his privacy and asks us to leave.  While spying on him through the door crack, I saw him get up, go over to get a book, and sit back down to read.  That's my boy!  A bathroom reader from the beginning!

The hardest part now is when we're out and about.  I have to constantly be aware of the nearest bathroom and watch him for signs that he has to go.  And, we're in a quandary because he doesn't like me holding him up in public restrooms (or outside, for that matter), and I don't necessarily want to start carting around our potty seat to put on the toilet.  That's why places like church (with a little potty) and Dan and Megan's house (with Abby's potty seat) are the best outings these days.

Yippee!  Hooray for going cold turkey!

(P.S. Just so I remember, my favorite books to check out again from the library are Danny is Done with Diapers: A Potty ABC, The Potty Train, Potty (by the same author as Yummy, Yucky), Potty Superhero, and Big Boy Undies. I also LOVED the Daniel Tiger episode about it. That's how I subconsciously remind Carter about the potty without nagging him about it; I just sing the little jingle "If you have to go potty, stop, and go right away. Flush and wash and be on your way!"  We don't always flush when it's just a couple dribbles, but he does love to sing the song...and get his M&M)

Potty training, here we come!

Today's the big day (hopefully).

Today we start potty training boot camp!

Three days of Lucas-you-take-the-other-kid, chugging-the-fluids, sitting-on-the-potty-every-20-minutes, wearing-undies-and-no-pants, no-trips-outside-the-house. At least that's the plan.

The dispenser is full of M&M's.  Daniel and Prince Wednesday Go to the Potty is on the DVR.  Potty books have been gathered from library branches across Lexington.  Potty seats are ready in both bathrooms.  Thomas undies are washed.  I think I'm as ready as I can be.

I've been dreading/looking forward to this day for awhile.  Most of Carter's two-year-old friends are already potty-trained.  As much as I didn't want to have to deal with 2 kids in diapers, I realized that I'd rather do that than deal with an infant in diapers and a toddler who has accidents.  Changing diapers seemed easier to control.  And so I put off this day until the summer (as suggested by my OB-GYN, mom of 3 boys).  Once summer came, I put off this day until now, my last full week of vacation.  It's now or never! (well, not really -- as they say, there aren't many college students walking around in diapers).

Carter hasn't been super interested; in fact, most of the time he screams "No! I not use the potty!" when I say things like, "This summer, Carter, you're going to start using the potty!"  We've been reading some potty books from the library, though, and he has started to be intrigued. At the end of "Potty Superhero," it says something like "Soon you'll use the potty, too, and wear big boy pants like me!"  To which Carter screams, "NO!!!! Yet's (let's) read it again!"

He's also been intrigued by the M&M dispenser that Melissa Tibbs let us borrow.  I let him try one and then told him that he'd get more once he peed in the potty.  One day, Lucas showed Carter how he peed in the potty and then got himself an M&M.  This was very motivating to Carter.  He promptly sat himself on the toilet and pee actually came out! He's been on the potty several times before and after without anything happening, so that was exciting! I thought that he had made the connection to being able to make himself pee in the potty, but it may have just been a fluke.  Since I don't remember my own potty training experience and can't remember what it was like not to be able to pee in the potty, I'm not sure how to help him understand! (hmm...kind of like how it's hard to help students with something that came easily to me).

Anyway, I've been intimidated by the unknown of this whole potty training deal, but today's the day! We'll see how it goes! (and I'll let you know!)