We worked on finishing up the rest of my winter-themed books and activities last week, making snowflakes, reading the gingerbread baby and the mitten, and continuing to enjoy our Antarctica box.
This week we are reading several books about bunnies, including Peter Rabbit and other Beatrix Potter stories, ABC Bunny, and The Little Rabbit. I decided to do a week with these books and some light-hearted Easter reads now, and then focus on the real Easter story at the end of the month.
We are almost at the end of our First Start Reading workbooks A-D, but that will take us only halfway through Classical Phonics. I just write the new words and sentences on a little white board, then Henry reads them and erases the board, because he is not writing yet, but I didn't want this to hold him back from the phonics that he has already mastered. He pretty much knows the words we're doing now, but I still wanted to go through each lesson anyway just so I know I'm not skipping something crucial. I guess when we finish the workbooks I'll have to just make lessons up for the rest of the phonics books. We should be finished with the workbooks this week if I stay on top of it.
We started reading our Bible stories from this book 5 Minute Bible Story Devotions. He seemed distracted while I read but later commented on a story, so I think they're good. I also read from the My Father's World Story Book Bible, and roughly follow the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-year-old schedule for the stories.
We went to the library and got some Australia books, some about the country and some about animals from the country, so we'll start doing our Australia box soon. I have some more stuff coming in the mail too. We might forgo themes for a while and focus on the animals or something if Henry likes them enough.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
We went to PA last weekend for a little vacation, and I visited an
educational store there. A woman who worked there said she was a former
preschool and kindergarten teacher and asked if she could help me find
something. I asked her about resources for teaching some specific
phonetics skills.
When she showed me some workbooks that were heavy on writing and drawing, I explained that I was looking for something more visual since my son was young and didn't enjoy writing. When she heard that Henry was three, she looked at me like I was crazy. First she said that there was no way that he could really read. When I assured her that he could, she acted like I was "hot-housing" (a term I just found out about) or something, drilling him with concepts too advanced for him. When I said that I only followed his interest, teaching him when he asked to be taught and answered his questions about reading, she said, conciliatory, "Well, it's not developmentally normal. Pretty soon he'll just stop and then all the other kids will catch up."
At first I was baffled. Why didn't she just show me what I wanted (and make a sale)? Why was she so invested in convincing me that my son was weird, that I was crazy, that Henry learning early and well was something to worry about, that it would be fine because eventually he would fall back and average out?
I know not all teachers are like this lady. There are certainly teachers out there who see each child as an individual and do their very best to bring out the full potential of each student in their care. But it made me realize that sending Henry to school might subject him to personalities like these, who want everything and everybody to fit in a neat little box, those who see working ahead in the same light as falling behind.
Homeschooling is hard. It will probably get a lot harder before we are through. But it's worth it to let my children learn the best way they can, whether that fits into someone else's timeline or not.
When she showed me some workbooks that were heavy on writing and drawing, I explained that I was looking for something more visual since my son was young and didn't enjoy writing. When she heard that Henry was three, she looked at me like I was crazy. First she said that there was no way that he could really read. When I assured her that he could, she acted like I was "hot-housing" (a term I just found out about) or something, drilling him with concepts too advanced for him. When I said that I only followed his interest, teaching him when he asked to be taught and answered his questions about reading, she said, conciliatory, "Well, it's not developmentally normal. Pretty soon he'll just stop and then all the other kids will catch up."
At first I was baffled. Why didn't she just show me what I wanted (and make a sale)? Why was she so invested in convincing me that my son was weird, that I was crazy, that Henry learning early and well was something to worry about, that it would be fine because eventually he would fall back and average out?
I know not all teachers are like this lady. There are certainly teachers out there who see each child as an individual and do their very best to bring out the full potential of each student in their care. But it made me realize that sending Henry to school might subject him to personalities like these, who want everything and everybody to fit in a neat little box, those who see working ahead in the same light as falling behind.
Homeschooling is hard. It will probably get a lot harder before we are through. But it's worth it to let my children learn the best way they can, whether that fits into someone else's timeline or not.
Snowy Day!
It didn't snow this week but that didn't stop us from reading some great books about snow days and snowmen. There were so many cool activities I found for a snow theme that we didn't get to all of them, so we may sneak a couple into next week when we read The Mitten by Jan Brett.
Henry is getting faster at reading and spelling words. Other than reading aloud and along with him, we also practiced some silent e words and now he is much better at pronouncing silent e words quickly. Before when he saw a word like "make", he would say "mack, no wait, make." Now he is much faster at seeing the whole word and saying it correctly. We'll probably continue practicing the silent e words this week, maybe with some vowel-r-silent e words because I think those can be tricky.
He is also more interested in holding pencils. He didn't want to write letters but likes those printable worksheets where you trace a path from one object to another. He also did some dot-to-dot worksheets and some regular old coloring. I'll be ordering more FLIP crayons from rainbow resource because we've worn ours down to nothing. I'll probably also order some new do-a-dot markers just for fun.
I backed off doing any kind of math this past week.
We opened up our first continent box, Antarctica! Henry absolutely loved it. We have a little ball that looks like a globe, an inflatable globe, and a big map of the world on the wall. We found Antarctica on all of them. We read books from the library and tried watching March of the Penguins. I have to say I was glad Henry wasn't that in to it, that movie is sad! I think his favorite thing about Antarctica is spelling it. It's probably the biggest word he knows and he gets a kick out of it.
We listened to Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne on cd from the library. The first chapter I played he almost ignored it, running around the house. His attention span got much longer as we continued, and now he'll sometimes ask for two chapters, but I've found one is more where he is at this time.
We've been reading one devotion from Gotta Have God Devotions for Boys each morning. Now that Henry is a bit older, the ABC Jesus Loves me curriculum is more his speed in terms of the Bible stories, so we're following that schedule again. Next week is Jesus Feeding the 5000, which should be fun!
I play classical music during some of our down time, but haven't put up our composer of the month pictures yet. I am going to do the Artist of the Month first I think, starting with Picasso because he is fun. I got some books from the library and googled coloring pages for Picasso's paintings - it is amazing how many there were! We will hopefully start the Artists this week and the composers a couple weeks later.
I think I'm mellowing out as we go. I used to feel so bad if we didn't do something I had planned or if I changed the plan or dropped something. Now I'm realizing that those decisions were usually made not because we are lazy or ineffective, but because that was what was best for us at the time. If Henry isn't ready for something he isn't ready. In the same way, if he is ready to read why do we need to wait on someone else's schedule to do it?
Henry is getting faster at reading and spelling words. Other than reading aloud and along with him, we also practiced some silent e words and now he is much better at pronouncing silent e words quickly. Before when he saw a word like "make", he would say "mack, no wait, make." Now he is much faster at seeing the whole word and saying it correctly. We'll probably continue practicing the silent e words this week, maybe with some vowel-r-silent e words because I think those can be tricky.
He is also more interested in holding pencils. He didn't want to write letters but likes those printable worksheets where you trace a path from one object to another. He also did some dot-to-dot worksheets and some regular old coloring. I'll be ordering more FLIP crayons from rainbow resource because we've worn ours down to nothing. I'll probably also order some new do-a-dot markers just for fun.
I backed off doing any kind of math this past week.
We opened up our first continent box, Antarctica! Henry absolutely loved it. We have a little ball that looks like a globe, an inflatable globe, and a big map of the world on the wall. We found Antarctica on all of them. We read books from the library and tried watching March of the Penguins. I have to say I was glad Henry wasn't that in to it, that movie is sad! I think his favorite thing about Antarctica is spelling it. It's probably the biggest word he knows and he gets a kick out of it.
We listened to Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne on cd from the library. The first chapter I played he almost ignored it, running around the house. His attention span got much longer as we continued, and now he'll sometimes ask for two chapters, but I've found one is more where he is at this time.
We've been reading one devotion from Gotta Have God Devotions for Boys each morning. Now that Henry is a bit older, the ABC Jesus Loves me curriculum is more his speed in terms of the Bible stories, so we're following that schedule again. Next week is Jesus Feeding the 5000, which should be fun!
I play classical music during some of our down time, but haven't put up our composer of the month pictures yet. I am going to do the Artist of the Month first I think, starting with Picasso because he is fun. I got some books from the library and googled coloring pages for Picasso's paintings - it is amazing how many there were! We will hopefully start the Artists this week and the composers a couple weeks later.
I think I'm mellowing out as we go. I used to feel so bad if we didn't do something I had planned or if I changed the plan or dropped something. Now I'm realizing that those decisions were usually made not because we are lazy or ineffective, but because that was what was best for us at the time. If Henry isn't ready for something he isn't ready. In the same way, if he is ready to read why do we need to wait on someone else's schedule to do it?
Monday, February 11, 2013
Will You Be My Valentine?
We had lots of fun with our penguin theme last week. I think we may return to it once I get our Antarctica continent box ready!
This week we are reading some Valentine's Day and love-themed books. Today we worked on making some Valentine's Day cards for our friends and some handprint crafts for the grandparents. We also took some time looking at our new maps that I hung in the hallway and reading Where Do I Live?
Henry asked to read BOB books but got bored with them pretty quickly. I'm thinking this is a good thing because they are very easy for him and the stories are not very interesting. It is always hard to know how much he is comprehending when he is reading aloud to me, but in this case I think he realized that the stories were boring. He loves to read Go, Dog, Go, which has more newer sight words and is just all around a more "real" book.
I tried to play a little addition game but he was either bored or just not getting it. I think we'll have to try something more conceptual. Tomorrow we will wrap Valentine's Day presents for the kids in our small group (hoping Amazon gets them to us in time), and do some more fun reading aloud.
Stella has been cruising, crawling, teething, and eating us out of house and home, so it's been harder to sit down for a long time with Henry. On the other hand I feel that for his age shorter, more spaced out learning is working well. I do a little activity with him, then feed the baby, then something else, then do some dishes, etc. It doesn't fit into my neat little plans always but it works.
This week we are reading some Valentine's Day and love-themed books. Today we worked on making some Valentine's Day cards for our friends and some handprint crafts for the grandparents. We also took some time looking at our new maps that I hung in the hallway and reading Where Do I Live?
Henry asked to read BOB books but got bored with them pretty quickly. I'm thinking this is a good thing because they are very easy for him and the stories are not very interesting. It is always hard to know how much he is comprehending when he is reading aloud to me, but in this case I think he realized that the stories were boring. He loves to read Go, Dog, Go, which has more newer sight words and is just all around a more "real" book.
I tried to play a little addition game but he was either bored or just not getting it. I think we'll have to try something more conceptual. Tomorrow we will wrap Valentine's Day presents for the kids in our small group (hoping Amazon gets them to us in time), and do some more fun reading aloud.
Stella has been cruising, crawling, teething, and eating us out of house and home, so it's been harder to sit down for a long time with Henry. On the other hand I feel that for his age shorter, more spaced out learning is working well. I do a little activity with him, then feed the baby, then something else, then do some dishes, etc. It doesn't fit into my neat little plans always but it works.
This Week: Penguins!
We are having a great season of preschool! Henry is happy to be learning and makes progress every day. We are still working on potty-training and our main focus for school is just improving his reading. He will now verbally spell words out unprompted. It is fun to open the front door and hear his little voice whispering "L-O-C-K. That's lock. Yeah, that lock."
I got him to try tracing some letters by using some printable letter pages, I think from 1+1+1? I put them in a binder in sheet protectors and let him use tiny dry erase markers from the Target dollar section to trace the letters. He loved erasing them with the eraser too. We also just do do-a-dot pages and I'll be opening up a new pack of skinny pipsqueak markers to color with tomorrow.
This week our theme is Penguins, and we've been having fun reading some really great books. Greg has been reading The Narnia Chronicles to him before bed, and I just started reading Mr. Popper's Penguins during the day. We've also found some great picture books, including One Cool Friend, Tacky the Penguin, and Penguin. Of course there is always our old favorite, Osbert. Henry hasn't asked to watch Pingu yet, but I'm sure that will happen too.
Greg does "Math School" with him about once a week but I am hoping to join in and do little games throughout the week. He would love memorizing whatever math facts we taught him but we are hoping for a more conceptual understanding.
I am planning a big geography survey based around our continent boxes, but I'm not sure when we'll start. I guess I originally planned to do Antarctica when we did Penguins, but I don't feel like I've prepared enough yet.
I found a great website for a study of artists and musicians. I had some classical cds I got at a prior homeschool convention and I hope to get some more when we go in May.
It's hard not to feel overwhelmed by all of the awesome plans I'm making right now. It feels like there is so much work to do, especially considering our budget limitations, but I'm trying to remember to focus on the basics for now, and realize that by the time Henry is ready for these substantive topics, I'll have it figured out.
I got him to try tracing some letters by using some printable letter pages, I think from 1+1+1? I put them in a binder in sheet protectors and let him use tiny dry erase markers from the Target dollar section to trace the letters. He loved erasing them with the eraser too. We also just do do-a-dot pages and I'll be opening up a new pack of skinny pipsqueak markers to color with tomorrow.
This week our theme is Penguins, and we've been having fun reading some really great books. Greg has been reading The Narnia Chronicles to him before bed, and I just started reading Mr. Popper's Penguins during the day. We've also found some great picture books, including One Cool Friend, Tacky the Penguin, and Penguin. Of course there is always our old favorite, Osbert. Henry hasn't asked to watch Pingu yet, but I'm sure that will happen too.
Greg does "Math School" with him about once a week but I am hoping to join in and do little games throughout the week. He would love memorizing whatever math facts we taught him but we are hoping for a more conceptual understanding.
I am planning a big geography survey based around our continent boxes, but I'm not sure when we'll start. I guess I originally planned to do Antarctica when we did Penguins, but I don't feel like I've prepared enough yet.
I found a great website for a study of artists and musicians. I had some classical cds I got at a prior homeschool convention and I hope to get some more when we go in May.
It's hard not to feel overwhelmed by all of the awesome plans I'm making right now. It feels like there is so much work to do, especially considering our budget limitations, but I'm trying to remember to focus on the basics for now, and realize that by the time Henry is ready for these substantive topics, I'll have it figured out.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Where We Are Now
I haven't posted much since we've been so so busy. Hurricane Sandy threw us for a loop and since then it's been non-stop dealing with damage to the house and rearranging our house now that we have no storage space. We have continued to do preschool at home, but with all of the non-essentials cut out. Just this month I've been able to add back in more of the fun theme-based activities that I'd planned on doing. Without further ado, this is where we are now:
Life Skills - Henry FINALLY was able to use the potty (consciously, not just accidentally because I was putting him on every ten minutes). This has been our main focus as far as teaching him to be independent. We got him a special new train for the first time he did it, and now have a sticker chart for another reward. I got three packs of chore chart things from the dollar section at Target (awesome sauce). I'm taking baby-steps with this. I tried just putting him in underwear cold turkey and I still have PTSD from the number of accidents I was cleaning up, so for now he is still in diapers. I'm sure he would train faster if I had the guts to ditch the diapers again but for now I'm ok with the gradual approach.
Reading - Watching Henry learn to read has been one of the most exciting experiences for me as a homeschooling parent. I'm not a former teacher like many homeschool moms I know, so I was a little worried that I would do something horribly wrong and Henry would end up behind with this. Fortunately for my inexperienced self he has always been obsessed with letters and as soon as he "got it" (figured out how to put the letter sounds together to sound out words phonetically) he was reading.
I let him watch the Preschool Prep Sight Words dvds before he was reading phonetically, and he could pretty much read their Sight Words Readers, but I didn't consider him to be actually "reading" until he was sounding out new words on his own. He started doing that soon after he began reading the Sight Words books, so I think allowing him to take the whole language approach first actually triggered something in his mind that allowed him to "decode" the letters and read. Starting with whole language is controversial, and I wouldn't have chosen to do it, but he loved the Sight Words dvds so much and kept asking for them and in our case it worked out very well. Now he can read many many picture books, BOB books, and the leveled readers like Step Into Reading books. He also loves sounding out signs and other words whenever he encounters them. He will verbally spell out words (unless asked!), like MILK, and CAN'T!
Henry loves Starfall and anything else that has to do with the computer or movies so I'm trying to use that to my advantage. We are doing the portion of Starfall that teaches silent e's and he is doing well with that. Also the Leapfrog dvd WordCaper explains silent e words very well so I think I'll try and show him that again. He knows the rule but needs more practice to apply it quicker.
Writing - Henry is either average or behind with fine motor skills for his age. It's hard to say, because I think he's actually capable of writing but is very easily frustrated and gives up quickly. We went to a birthday party for two sisters this weekend, and he wrote his name on one card, looked at it, and refused to try the second card even when I tried to help him. I think the fact that the letters don't look the way they look in his mind is frustrating to him. He often asks me to write words or letters for him, but I try to hold back a little so that he'll develop the desire to try himself. He is stubborn and won't cooperate when I try to correct his pencil grip. I'm hoping this will be one of those developmental things and that he'll just wake up one day and want to do it :)
Math - Greg does "Math School" with Henry at least once a week. He uses the first grade materials from Right Start Math, level B I think. This program is very conceptual and doesn't yet require writing skills so it is going well. There is a cd with rhymes to learn their system and some visual aids that Henry likes.
Behavior - I've been really encouraged these last few days. Henry is still going through a "no" phase where he basically just says the opposite of whatever we say. I'm not too disturbed by this, since he has actually been more obedient, he just says no but still follows directions and has been sweeter than ever. For example, we'll say "Henry do you want to go swimming in the pool?" and he'll say, "No! Not the pool! We can go take a bath!" A minute later he'll realize what we said and what he said and run up to us saying "The pool the pool, we can go swimming in the pool." His negative responses seem sort of reflexive. I've been ignoring it. I think focusing on it would just make him dig his heels in. I think it has something to do with becoming more independent, trying to have his own opinion, that sort of thing. We're hoping he outgrows this phase soon though :)
Other Subjects - Like I said, I've been planning to do some more theme-related activities. Some are new, others I planned to do earlier but never got to. Up next are Penguins, Snowmen/Snow, The Gingerbread Man, The Mitten (the book), Valentine's Day, Dishes (setting the table, putting the silverware away), Clothing, Weather, Bugs, and Growing Plants. This just means I try to find library books, gather books we have, and buy a few books about the theme, print out some little activities with theme-related clip art, and maybe do a craft or two. It's just a way to get Henry into what we're doing and create some unity between the other subjects.
As far as the bible stories and memory verses are concerned, I'm not sure what to do. I was trying to use the ABC Jesus Loves Me website as a basic guide and planned to gather different resources, books, crafts, etc to go along with the Bible stories she suggested. I'm having such a hard time with this. Maybe I just don't have enough time to do it well. I'm going to research it a little more and see if there isn't some bible curriculum that requires less work on my part. I really wish we were going to one of the big homeschool conventions in March, but money is just too scarce to plan another trip right now. The NJ and PA conventions we're planning on attending are not until May and I don't want to wait that long to change up our Bible time. I may have to try and just ask around.
Life Skills - Henry FINALLY was able to use the potty (consciously, not just accidentally because I was putting him on every ten minutes). This has been our main focus as far as teaching him to be independent. We got him a special new train for the first time he did it, and now have a sticker chart for another reward. I got three packs of chore chart things from the dollar section at Target (awesome sauce). I'm taking baby-steps with this. I tried just putting him in underwear cold turkey and I still have PTSD from the number of accidents I was cleaning up, so for now he is still in diapers. I'm sure he would train faster if I had the guts to ditch the diapers again but for now I'm ok with the gradual approach.
Reading - Watching Henry learn to read has been one of the most exciting experiences for me as a homeschooling parent. I'm not a former teacher like many homeschool moms I know, so I was a little worried that I would do something horribly wrong and Henry would end up behind with this. Fortunately for my inexperienced self he has always been obsessed with letters and as soon as he "got it" (figured out how to put the letter sounds together to sound out words phonetically) he was reading.
I let him watch the Preschool Prep Sight Words dvds before he was reading phonetically, and he could pretty much read their Sight Words Readers, but I didn't consider him to be actually "reading" until he was sounding out new words on his own. He started doing that soon after he began reading the Sight Words books, so I think allowing him to take the whole language approach first actually triggered something in his mind that allowed him to "decode" the letters and read. Starting with whole language is controversial, and I wouldn't have chosen to do it, but he loved the Sight Words dvds so much and kept asking for them and in our case it worked out very well. Now he can read many many picture books, BOB books, and the leveled readers like Step Into Reading books. He also loves sounding out signs and other words whenever he encounters them. He will verbally spell out words (unless asked!), like MILK, and CAN'T!
Henry loves Starfall and anything else that has to do with the computer or movies so I'm trying to use that to my advantage. We are doing the portion of Starfall that teaches silent e's and he is doing well with that. Also the Leapfrog dvd WordCaper explains silent e words very well so I think I'll try and show him that again. He knows the rule but needs more practice to apply it quicker.
Writing - Henry is either average or behind with fine motor skills for his age. It's hard to say, because I think he's actually capable of writing but is very easily frustrated and gives up quickly. We went to a birthday party for two sisters this weekend, and he wrote his name on one card, looked at it, and refused to try the second card even when I tried to help him. I think the fact that the letters don't look the way they look in his mind is frustrating to him. He often asks me to write words or letters for him, but I try to hold back a little so that he'll develop the desire to try himself. He is stubborn and won't cooperate when I try to correct his pencil grip. I'm hoping this will be one of those developmental things and that he'll just wake up one day and want to do it :)
Math - Greg does "Math School" with Henry at least once a week. He uses the first grade materials from Right Start Math, level B I think. This program is very conceptual and doesn't yet require writing skills so it is going well. There is a cd with rhymes to learn their system and some visual aids that Henry likes.
Behavior - I've been really encouraged these last few days. Henry is still going through a "no" phase where he basically just says the opposite of whatever we say. I'm not too disturbed by this, since he has actually been more obedient, he just says no but still follows directions and has been sweeter than ever. For example, we'll say "Henry do you want to go swimming in the pool?" and he'll say, "No! Not the pool! We can go take a bath!" A minute later he'll realize what we said and what he said and run up to us saying "The pool the pool, we can go swimming in the pool." His negative responses seem sort of reflexive. I've been ignoring it. I think focusing on it would just make him dig his heels in. I think it has something to do with becoming more independent, trying to have his own opinion, that sort of thing. We're hoping he outgrows this phase soon though :)
Other Subjects - Like I said, I've been planning to do some more theme-related activities. Some are new, others I planned to do earlier but never got to. Up next are Penguins, Snowmen/Snow, The Gingerbread Man, The Mitten (the book), Valentine's Day, Dishes (setting the table, putting the silverware away), Clothing, Weather, Bugs, and Growing Plants. This just means I try to find library books, gather books we have, and buy a few books about the theme, print out some little activities with theme-related clip art, and maybe do a craft or two. It's just a way to get Henry into what we're doing and create some unity between the other subjects.
As far as the bible stories and memory verses are concerned, I'm not sure what to do. I was trying to use the ABC Jesus Loves Me website as a basic guide and planned to gather different resources, books, crafts, etc to go along with the Bible stories she suggested. I'm having such a hard time with this. Maybe I just don't have enough time to do it well. I'm going to research it a little more and see if there isn't some bible curriculum that requires less work on my part. I really wish we were going to one of the big homeschool conventions in March, but money is just too scarce to plan another trip right now. The NJ and PA conventions we're planning on attending are not until May and I don't want to wait that long to change up our Bible time. I may have to try and just ask around.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Still on Track
Remember when I talked about not letting those unexpected life events get in the way of persevering on with your homeschool? Well, I had the opportunity to put this into practice this year already.
It was the day before we were planning to start school. I had done most of the prep work, but still had a list of stuff to be printed, cut, laminated, and a few books I had to find. Greg was asleep on the couch, the kids were still asleep in bed. I heard Greg's phone and saw his sister's number. I thought it would be a good time to wake him up, so I handed him the still vibrating phone and left the room to do more chores. A few minutes later he came to me, and I could tell before he said anything that the news was bad. My mind said "Who?", frantically going down the list of his family members, each possibility filling me with dread. Then he said, "My dad's plane crashed," and began to cry. We would later find out that Henry's Grandpa-Dad had miraculously survived the accident and would slowly but steadily recover. But for that initial time we didn't know what to think.
I pushed away the tears of uncertain grief and tried to think practicalities. My husband's business had been steady, but his income was still cyclical, he will sometimes wait months to be paid for any one particular case, occasionally creating very dry times for us. This happened to be the absolute lowest we had ever been financially. We had a couple of near-maxed out credit cards and .38 cents in our bank account, no exaggeration. I went upstairs to my family and told them what happened, and asked to borrow money for gas to get down to TN. Luckily they were able to help us with no questions asked. My sister came down with me and started packing a bag for the kids, and I packed for Greg, then started packing for myself. Half-way in I just gave up and got everyone into the car and began driving.
We drove all day and night, arriving in Memphis around 6am the next morning. Greg saw his Dad right away and we were all encouraged as he took the first steps toward healing. We spent the week with Greg's sisters, working around the TICU's visiting schedule. We took Henry with us once, but the combination of emotional strain and running after him was difficult, and after that he stayed home with me or one of the aunts. Despite the stress of the situation, Henry did get to spend time with and interact with his aunts and his soon-to-be Uncle Ron who he absolutely adored.
We got back late on the following Sunday night, effectively skipping our first whole week of school. We were emotionally drained and worried, not just for Grandpa-Dad, but for his wife and daughter who were left behind to walk with him during what will be a difficult recovery time. I did not feel like singing songs or reading books to Henry. I wanted to spend the next day sleeping or reading or in some way recovering from the trip. But I got out my schedule and shifted some things around and cut some things out, and eventually figured about how to combine the first week into the second and third weeks. And Monday we had school. And it was awesome.
Henry had an amazing day. He listened, he remembered what I taught him. I was able to take care of Baby Stella and do the dishes and the laundry and teach Henry and even make dinner without a hitch. It wasn't perfect by any means. We won't get to do every single thing I originally planned. But it will be work, and Henry will have a great year, maybe even a better year because we stuck with it.
It was the day before we were planning to start school. I had done most of the prep work, but still had a list of stuff to be printed, cut, laminated, and a few books I had to find. Greg was asleep on the couch, the kids were still asleep in bed. I heard Greg's phone and saw his sister's number. I thought it would be a good time to wake him up, so I handed him the still vibrating phone and left the room to do more chores. A few minutes later he came to me, and I could tell before he said anything that the news was bad. My mind said "Who?", frantically going down the list of his family members, each possibility filling me with dread. Then he said, "My dad's plane crashed," and began to cry. We would later find out that Henry's Grandpa-Dad had miraculously survived the accident and would slowly but steadily recover. But for that initial time we didn't know what to think.
I pushed away the tears of uncertain grief and tried to think practicalities. My husband's business had been steady, but his income was still cyclical, he will sometimes wait months to be paid for any one particular case, occasionally creating very dry times for us. This happened to be the absolute lowest we had ever been financially. We had a couple of near-maxed out credit cards and .38 cents in our bank account, no exaggeration. I went upstairs to my family and told them what happened, and asked to borrow money for gas to get down to TN. Luckily they were able to help us with no questions asked. My sister came down with me and started packing a bag for the kids, and I packed for Greg, then started packing for myself. Half-way in I just gave up and got everyone into the car and began driving.
We drove all day and night, arriving in Memphis around 6am the next morning. Greg saw his Dad right away and we were all encouraged as he took the first steps toward healing. We spent the week with Greg's sisters, working around the TICU's visiting schedule. We took Henry with us once, but the combination of emotional strain and running after him was difficult, and after that he stayed home with me or one of the aunts. Despite the stress of the situation, Henry did get to spend time with and interact with his aunts and his soon-to-be Uncle Ron who he absolutely adored.
We got back late on the following Sunday night, effectively skipping our first whole week of school. We were emotionally drained and worried, not just for Grandpa-Dad, but for his wife and daughter who were left behind to walk with him during what will be a difficult recovery time. I did not feel like singing songs or reading books to Henry. I wanted to spend the next day sleeping or reading or in some way recovering from the trip. But I got out my schedule and shifted some things around and cut some things out, and eventually figured about how to combine the first week into the second and third weeks. And Monday we had school. And it was awesome.
Henry had an amazing day. He listened, he remembered what I taught him. I was able to take care of Baby Stella and do the dishes and the laundry and teach Henry and even make dinner without a hitch. It wasn't perfect by any means. We won't get to do every single thing I originally planned. But it will be work, and Henry will have a great year, maybe even a better year because we stuck with it.
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