Anxiety

Oh man, just when I think I'm at ease with the path we are taking with our kids, I go and blow it. I mean I went and read a bunch of blogs by super moms. You know, the kind of mom I'm not. When *do* these women find the time? I think we're ticking along fine, and I think progress is being made (ok, so what if Sawyer doesn't know the name of the last letter in his name, he knows it is the last letter in his name.....) August is reading more and more and really figuring it out...He can even be asked to read to his brothers in a crunch, sometimes. Holdy made a Sawyer letter (S) today out of an elastic....But as for big involved projects? Uh, no. games, nope.....the little guy only gets in there and ruins them. Card games with August, nope. Can't, the little guy again. Reading? Yep, every day, as much as possible....sometimes more than an hour, sometimes 15 minutes....My goal: 1 Hour. Playtime: Endless TV: Magic School Bus, Superwhy, Word World..... Computer: sometimes, today Yes, Holdy did Sesame Street games Nature walks? It's my goal to do something outside with them as much as possible....Does going out to check out the black bear footprints along our fence count? Digging parsnips for Xmas dinner? Carrots for the reindeer? Shovelling off the sagging trampoline and scary snowloaded greenhouses?? Ok ok, we did do one walk at Millard Park by Walmart this week ....Skiing? Yep, 2 days before Xmas 2 days after.....lots more to come.... Playing outside in the snow: Now this SERIOUSLY cuts into any REAL (tongue firmly in cheek, I think) learning going on as I have to drag the kids in to eat dinner, they barely undress, if at all, then head out again til bedtime, drag them back inside and force them into pjs and into bed. My kids need to go to bed early or we, the parents, suffer with endless pointless meltdowns the next day.....

On one post I read "stay tuned for more ideas to integrate learning into your daily life...." HUH??? I thought that was what I was doing everyday. But am I? Am I doing enough? Are we?? Maybe what I do isn't as structured as some, more fly by the seat of my pants type stuff....Like August asked why the gravy pourer measuring cup (now bathtub toy) poured out of the bottom, so I explained that oil/fat floated on water so with this kitchen tool allowed us to pour out the gravy and leave the oil/fat.....I promised to show him tomorrow.....I mentionned oil tankers crashing and spilling oil and sea birds landing in it....but does this sink in??? (Has Ms Frizzle talked about this??? )

I looked into ordering some Painted Lady Butterfly Larvae today.....that would be cool. Of course this was from the blog of one of the super moms.....

I looked into Discovery Streaming....but I hate the idea of sitting them down to watch *more* tv....

I'm so frightened of trying to do some sort of project with the boys, August more specifically, and ruining it for him by getting to teachy....I'd love to do some sort of project with birds - journalling etc, but it seems if I try to introduce something he *knows* what I'm doing and refuses....I had some stuff on my laptop about earthquakes, he found it and was looking at it but as soon as he realized I had it for him he stopped....ARGH!!!!

Where would he be if he was in school right now?

Heard this week: A: Mom, why do eagles look so beautiful when they're gliding but their sound is so bad. (At the park listening to the bald eagle calls, an almost undescribable sound)
S: Are you going to back up then? (After explaining something was my back up plan)
H: I love worms.