Paddy is still asleep was still asleep so I thought I’d write my journal before things got going around here. Later on the day will get busy….. we have our homeschool meeting and it takes up a good part of the afternoon.
Yesterday the two little ones had their first T ball game. Interesting about being a longterm sports mom. My oldest is almost 21. The kids he played ball with are practically having kids of their own. The “new generation” I am sitting in the sidelines with now may have an oldest who is about my fifth child’s age. But it’s a rarity to find anyone else who has children spanning the spectrum of ages like we do. I think we’ve met three… one a blended family and two not. The families we used to sit with when Sean and Kieron were younger have moved on up the ladder to Majors or Babe Ruth.
Strangely enough, almost all the homeschool moms in our small Catholic hs group are in their forties like I am. Some of them got a late start in their families and have kids ten and under. Some of them have wide flung spacing like we do and only their younger children come to the meeting (it’s the same with us, except that Clare comes to play the piano). This is coincidental but rather nice because we can share older-mom perspective. At the same time, there is one young mom — still in her twenties — who comes occasionally and she is a breath of fresh air — so energetic and with all these untested, well thought out ideals and plans! I miss that young energy and vision in myself so it’s nice to be around it. Funny to think she is closer to Clare’s age than to mine!
Anyway, the two boys did pretty well. Their practice on Tuesday was a little scary. Aidan was rambling and Paddy was hopping up and down the whole time – Horizontal and Vertical! Or Thing One and Thing Two! I talked them through the game process several times ahead of time and I guess it worked. Aidan did a great hit off the Tee. He got to see a lot of defensive action as catcher. Paddy less so out in the left field. He didn’t get to field anything. That seemed OK for all concerned.
Kieron is still reading Boxcar Children and writing Bionicle comics. He’s learned so much about bitmap editors in the last couple of days that he could probably give me some tips.
This is the Viking ship Kieron made last week after Easter.
I also enrolled Kieron in the Young Scientist’s Club. Since he loves his Lego Club membership, I thought he would like getting science-related kits in the mail and it would be a fun way to cover topics appropriate to his age level. He seems pretty happy about it.
I see a weakness in my homeschooling in that I am not a hands-on person at all. I can do philosophy and literature, but crafts and experiments and 4H type projects drag me out. So I think that doing some pre-planned kits, if the kids are into it, gives them a chance to explore that realm.
