No comment on the misspelled last name.(He and I have been over it many times.)

As I began reading the writing journal, which contains tiny gems in both pictures and phonetically-spelled words, I said, “Awwwwwww…” out loud when I got to this one:

My translation: The most important manners is always be kind. Being kind is nice. It is fun too. I like being kind.

What elicited the “Awwwwww…” from me was the picture, in which Logan drew himself opening a door for other people and saying, “Ladies go first.”

“What?” said Logan, who was sitting across from me, doing his homework and heard my sigh.

“That’s so gentlemanly of you,” I said, showing him the picture.

“Aw, Mom, you’re making me dashful,” he said.

“Dashful?” I echoed.

“Yeah, you know, when you’re embarrassed? You’re dashful,” he explained.

“Oh, you mean BASHFUL,” I corrected.

“Yeah, DASHFUL,” he nodded.

This year will be no different.

L-R: Rachel, age 13 (8th grade), Cody, age 9 (3rd grade), Logan, age 7 (2nd grade) and Andrea, age 13 (8th grade).

The wisps of gray that you see are courtesy of the cloud that had apparently settled over our area, perhaps reflecting the majority’s feeling about school starting once again. The air was practically dripping when we all went outside to take pictures and wait for the bus.

I just compared this picture to last year’s (one reason I like to take these annual pictures), and wow, these kids have grown!

When asked how they liked school, the results were mixed.

“I LOVED it!” exclaimed Logan, who has the wonderfully entertaining and wise Mr. Duncan as a teacher.

Rachel’s response was, “Long. Hot. Homework. Million forms to fill out.”

Andie’s: “Good. Hot.” (The temperature, acting on Murphy’s Law, which states that since it was cool and nice last week, the first day of school should be HOT, was 96 and muggy, and our school has no air conditioning.)

Cody was in agreement with Logan and declared school “good.”

We’ll see what they say in a few more weeks.

Have your kids started school yet? How do they and you feel about it?

My main goals for the boys are for them to learn to tie their shoes and ride their bikes without training wheels. Yes, I know, it’s pretty sad that an 8-year-old and a 7-year-old still cannot do either of these tasks, but believe me, it hasn’t been for lack of trying. Neither of the boys wear shoes that lace-up very often, so it isn’t usually an issue and their lack of ability gets overlooked.

As for the bikes, Cody has notoriously horrible balance. The kid will be walking along, even sometimes just sitting, and all of a sudden he’ll fall over. When he was much younger, he once told me that his legs were “tricky” and just didn’t want to work right. Suffice it to say that riding a bike without training wheels is not an easy task for a child with such poor balance, especially a child forced to learn on gravel roads, which is all we have around here.

Logan, on the other hand, has never been particularly interested in pushing the pedals on his bike at all. From the get-go, he has always held his tricycle, and later, bike, by the handlebars and wheeled it around, walking next to it. I’ve thought this was extremely strange, but never worried too much about it.

I also want each of them to pick a hobby or skill that they’d like to spend time on and perfect this summer. For Cody, I’m guessing it will be baseball-related, since he just started baseball practice yesterday. He has been wanting to play the past few years, but it never worked out. He’s so excited about it, even though he has hardly ever played. I think a daily assignment of 15-20 minutes of catch and batting practice won’t be out of line for him.

I’m getting excited for summer with all of these ideas, so I hope they work out the way I’m envisioning them in my head.

Now I just have to get to the mundane task of getting everything organized and on paper so I can actually implement this plan.

However.

I’ve gotten used to this whole being-at-home-by-myself routine and I must say, I’m quite productive while the kids are at school.

And, darn it, I like having the whole [quiet] house to myself!

That’s why this year, for the first time, I’m actually dreading summer vacation a little bit (the last day of school is Friday already!).

Ever since I took this new job as Office Manager of a theological journal, I have many deadlines, some daily. It’s not a highly demanding job, for the most part, but it does require my undivided attention, sometimes for hours at a time.

The biggest disturbance is easily my sons, who are, as boys tend to be, rowdy, loud and usually all over each other. It feels like I’m constantly refereeing a wrestling match turned ugly or sending them to their rooms to cool down because they’re getting on each others’ nerves, especially on the weekends when they have whole chunks of time to bug each other.

I’ve come up with a combat plan to work out some sort of loose/flexible schedule for us all for this summer. This schedule will include daily, weekly, monthly and by-end-of-summer goals for everyone, and required daily activities, such as playing outside and doing age-appropriate chores.

Hopefully this plan will alleviate much of the “Mom, I don’t know what to do” commenting and keep them effectively occupied so I can get my work done during the time of the day I allot for that. This should also keep me more on-task.

All this is not to say that we won’t have a lot of fun because we will still have plenty of time for that. I will drag out our pop-up camper and let them use it as a playhouse and sleep outside under the stars. We’ll have campfires and roast marshmallows, read books, work in the garden together, play games, eat outside at the picnic table, go camping and swimming and biking.

I want to enjoy the time my kids are around and I think this is a good way to do it, while also helping them develop some skills and learn to be productive human beings. I’ll report back at a later date to let you know how it’s going.

Do you do anything different during summer vacation?

What he did not spell correctly is his name. His middle name, to be precise.

Logan’s middle name is Matthew. Here’s how he spelled it:

Mathyou

The girls and I got a good laugh out of that one. Logan seemed pleased with himself for giving us a chuckle.

Evidently the spelling of his middle name is something we need to go over. Soon.

My daughters, who will officially be teenagers next month, just got home from a Glow-In-the-Dark Middle School dance. Needless to say, I’m having mini mind fits because they are growing up far too fast, and because their growing up in turn means I’m growing older just as quickly.

So, today’s post is an homage to my daughters, who will in many ways always be my little girls. Here are two of my favorite pictures of them, both at age 5.

Here’s a prize example:

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cody, age 8, filled out this “Changing Our World” paper. It says:

“I can make the world a better place by … having no killing so I will talk to the president and see what he thinks. If he says yes, I will talk to the people of the world.”

No small, simple contributions like picking up litter or recycling or even being nice to everyone. No, this child wants to go all the way to the top of the list of problems and stop the killing. Not only that, he wants to talk to the president and the people of the world about it. I love that his choice reflects his idealistic, dreamer’s nature.

That said, Cody and I are going to have a brief discussion on the validity of taking little, realistic steps toward making the world a better place. Things like using good manners, volunteering, helping those in need and giving money to charity. Those, after all, are actually do-able.

The kids were out shopping with their dad around Thanksgiving time and Logan saw something that caught his attention and held it for months. He came home all excited to tell me about the Bigfoot toy he saw at the store.

“It costs $100!” he said. “I wish I had $100 so I could buy it.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” I said. (And, incidentally, what could be so amazing about a toy that it costs THAT much? Good grief.)

He brought the Bigfoot toy up many times, as well as his dearest wish that he would get it for Christmas. Again, I told him we weren’t going to spend $100 on a toy. In other conversations throughout the following weeks, he mentioned repeatedly that if he had the money, he would buy the Bigfoot toy.

So with this story in mind, you can imagine my surprise when the following paper came home from school:

I think the picture explains it all, but for the first graders’ celebration of the 100th day of school, they were given this paper with a copy of the $100 bill on it and asked to write what they would buy with their $100. In case you can’t read it, here’s the translation:

“If I had $100, I would give it Haiti and I would buy a toy. I would give it to my cousins.”

Logan has always been a generous little guy. He has been wonderful at sharing since he was a toddler, an innate trait he has that most kids have to learn. Still, I was impressed by his decision to spend his imaginary $100 on the people of Haiti and his cousins, rather than on the Bigfoot toy he has been wanting for so long.

I love the subtle, occasional peeks I get into the depths of my kids’ personalities. These two little sentences gave me greater insight into who Logan is and what is truly important to him.

I couldn’t be more proud.

What glimpses of your child’s best personality traits have you had? Share here!

]]> http://www.parentingbytrialanderror.com/2011/03/18/when-our-kids-inadvertently-impress-us/feed/ 0 http://www.parentingbytrialanderror.com/2010/08/28/back-to-school/ http://www.parentingbytrialanderror.com/2010/08/28/back-to-school/#comments Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:51:47 +0000 Sarah E. Ludwig http://www.parentingbytrialanderror.com/?p=2994 This week was the kids’ first one back in school. The transition from a rather unscheduled summer to a highly scheduled school year has gone much more seamlessly than I anticipated. For the first time ever, I have mixed feelings about school being in session once again.

Typically I hate it because I love having the kids home and being able to interact with them all day. However, this year, I’m feeling torn because now that I am working out of the house 2-3 times a week, I’m glad that they’re in school so they don’t miss me as much. I’m glad they’re equally occupied, but it’s always difficult to give up that time with them.

Here’s our annual first-day-of-school picture, captured on Tuesday:

What about you? How do you feel about your kids going back to school?

9:15 a.m.: The kids and I pulled out of the yard and headed to town.

10:00 a.m.: I left a nervous Andie and carefree boys at the Boys & Girls Club, equipped with all the cash I had left in my purse.

10:15 a.m.: Rachel and I arrived at the SPURS Therapeutic Riding Center, where we soaked up the gorgeous spring weather and beautiful surroundings as we waited for the staff to get there. The place was exactly her bag.

10:35 a.m.: After signing some papers and meeting Julie, the Volunteer Coordinator, I left SPURS feeling all kinds of excited for Rachel’s new venture.

10:45 a.m.: I arrived at the nutrition club and began work.

2:00 p.m.: Andie called to inform me that Logan was having a horrendous, embarrassing meltdown in the middle of The Boys & Girls Club, all due to the fact that the three of them had used all their money and had nothing left with which to purchase a snack. Logan, sleep deprivation and hunger are a lethal, ugly combination.

2:15 p.m.: I drove hurriedly to The Boys & Girls Club, digging for loose quarters in my van’s ashtray. All I could think was, Must. Get. Food. In. Logan.

2:25 p.m.: I walked into The B & G Club where Andie waited for me right by the counter. “That guy at the counter gave him 75 cents,” she muttered, pointing an inconspicuous thumb at a staff member.

2:30 p.m.: After reimbursing the guy at the counter, I gave Logan a mini-lecture as he shamefacedly offered me two half-melted Yogo-bites and a flock of kids leaned over the dividing wall to listen.

5:30 p.m.: Talking seriously with a customer at the nutrition club, I looked at the clock, only to see that I was supposed to be picking up all 4 kids at their various destinations at that moment. I excused myself and locked up quickly.

5:40 p.m.: I pulled into the B & G Club, where the kids were waiting with a staff member on the swings. Andie, nearly in tears at my tardiness (I had told her I’d be there around 5:00), got into the front seat and told me about how she didn’t make any friends. Logan’s face and hands sported mud and food, smeared all over his clothes and cheeks.

5:45 p.m.: We got to SPURS, where Rachel was waiting on the bench, looking sunburned and exhausted.

6:00 p.m.: We stopped at Subway to get some supper.

6:05 p.m.: Logan stood in the middle of Subway and began to wail, “But I don’t WANT water!”

6:06 p.m.: I had Rachel remove Logan from the premises as I paid for our meal.

6:10 p.m.: Arriving at the nutrition club, we got our food in and the kids ate their supper as I cleaned up.

7:01 p.m: We left the nutrition club, Logan dragging his feet the entire way.

7:06 p.m.: Rachel and Logan fell asleep in their seats and didn’t stir until we got home.

7:37 p.m.: Cody’s eyelids finally won the battle and he fell asleep too.

8:02 p.m.: Bathed and still exhausted, I kissed the boys good night and tucked them in.

9:34 p.m.: Andie and I finished tonight’s episode of American Idol, the season finale, and were thrilled when our favorite contestant won.

Needless to say, it was a very, very long day and I’m now at the tail end of it, trying to keep my eyelids open and my brain semi-functional as I write today’s blog post.

What’s your summer schedule like? Let’s hear a rundown of a typical day.