Mama Byrd

So far this week, the kids and I have survived our first week of homeschooling and two tornado warnings (Tuesday and Thursday), all in a little apartment. Amazingly, we’ve had fun and no one got hurt.

Caleb seems to love homeschooling. All of his lessons are on the computer, which means he finishes pretty quickly. I’ve had to add on to his assignments so that he doesn’t get finished an hour before Elizabeth does. On top of his schoolwork, he read the first installment of Harry Potter in 3 days (pretty outstanding for an 8-year-old). I’ve been trying to read it with him, but he passed me, so now I have to catch up.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, is finding quality time with mom and her brothers (and no one else) to be a bit of a struggle. She desperately wants some social interaction. She found another little girl her age next door, and she watches the clock every day for 4:00 to roll around so she can see if the other little girl is home from school. We are going to have to get into some kind of a homeschooling group soon so that she finds other kids who share her plight.

I have to admit, however, that today Caleb and Elizabeth played better together than they have in a very long time. Elizabeth even watched a basketball game with Caleb this evening, and let him teach her the rules of the game. She didn’t even complain or try to leave the room. I was impressed.

Phillip is slowly adjusting to the new situation as well, but he keeps insisting that I need to go to work so that Daddy can stay home with him. I asked him if he wanted us to do that everyday, and he said, “No, just tomorrow.”

The first few days we were homeschooling, he picked up on the fact that Elizabeth would call me to her for help every few minutes and I would respond with my undivided attention. It wasn’t long until I heard him call, “Mommy, I need your help. Help me watch Blue’s Clues.”

Filed under: Uncategorized on January 10th, 2008