I should start this post by saying I LOVE this kid. Since the day he was born we have had a special bond and I’m convinced you will not find an easier baby. He loves to cuddle, sleep, and at 3 still lets me treat him like my little baby boy (much to my husbands disagreement). Melts. My. Heart.

But lately he has tested all those things.

Liam LOVES anything that involves pushing buttons, turning knobs, or plays music. I always say that our boys have qualities that will make them great men, but frustrating children. He pretends the record player is an air-plane cockpit, he plays “shows” at the Orpheum on his 3 string guitar, and has a rock collection (which is made up of random pieces of cement from the parking lot across the street). All these things add up to being a great engineer or musician, but at 3, it drives me crazy.  Also, did I mention he is obsessed with putting things in water? From the Wii remote in the toilet when he was 1 to wanting to always put his toys in his water cup. This kid.

I do love him though. The way he can play by himself for minutes (lets be honest, hours at 3 doesn’t happen) creating characters and worlds in his head and the way he loves his brother. Thomas is not just his big brother he is his gateway to the world. New places and new people aren’t scary when you have an older brother to hold your hand through them.

The past month has been a huge adjustment for us all and the boys have handled it amazingly well and really the change has probably affected Liam the most. For about an hour to hour and a half every day he is left to himself (and crayons and paper) to not get in trouble and not play with Thomas. Which usually results to him crying everyday around 9 or 9:30.

This post started out as an “it’s ok to be frustrated at your children post” but I think it’s turned into ” I should be thankful he’s doing as well as he is”.  So here’s to you Liam and all the joy and song you bring to our family.

Well it took 5 days, I knew this day would come, now I’m glad it’s over. Day 5 started out like any other day, 5 year old looking 12 in his bean bag chair learning Bible:

Getting to use a glue stick!!!

But then it came time to do “5 Things”. He couldn’t give me anything, not even 1 thing could he remember from this day.  After about 10 minutes I told him we would just redo school. After I re-read the first 2 sentences of a lesson and he couldn’t answer my questions, I gave up and he cried.

After some time of separation, I explained to him that when he can’t remember what he’s learned it makes me feel like a bad teacher and that I’m not doing my job. He apologized and said he would try harder.

Here’s to another day, hoping that tomorrow is better (and it will be because it’s Friday and we don’t do school on Fridays).

Since last night was a late night and everyone was dragging a little this morning, we decided to head over to Tamp & Tap (a block away) for breakfast and school!

This actually worked! We got a big study table and were even able to do a little school with Luke before he headed to work. Changing scenery was a hit.

Here are the things we learned today:

1.The first people had to sew their clothes together.
2. Liam says these clothes were dirty and smelly.*
3. Clothes were made out of bison, wooly mammoth, deer.
4. Leaves change color depending on the season.
5. There are 4 seasons. Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring.
6. Fan, Food, Face, Fork, and Flag start with F.

Our letter for this week is F, so we played “I Spy” looking for things that start with F.

*Liam has started picking up on things and likes to try and answer questions with Thomas.

One of my favorite parts of the lesson today, was talking about how people made wool from the animals fur and then made clothes out of this. We have an amazing friend who is STILL making clothes this way! Her name is Han and she is the brains behind http://www.josifaye.com. I pulled up some pieces and we were able to talk about how she makes them.

Home-schooling away from home is definitely an idea worth repeating.

Today was Choose 901 Day (9/01/15) and it was a ton of fun. The boys have been asking to go to a Red Birds game all summer so this was the perfect opportunity. Since Luke was working, we got there super early and watched warm-ups and the preparing of the field.

We got our food and ate before all our friends showed up. Once they did, it was a good 3 hours of running around and playing tag. We did get to see Jon Jay (why was he not called up?!?!) hit a home-run to start the game!

It was so fun to see everyone who came out ( over 1,000 people!) hanging out and having a great time.

Because I feel like I have to…

And by almost forgot, I mean this was taken on Day 3…

On a scale from 1-10, I would give our first day of Homeschooling a 7. We started off strong and engaged and slowly grew tired and frustrated at each other. I’ve decided that as a way to make sure T is actually learning something, at the end of every day he has to make a list of at least 5 things he has learned that day ( I also send this list to Luke so that he knows what we’ve done as well).

Here is today’ s list:
1 It takes 24 hours for the Earth to spin around its axis.
2 It takes a year for the Earth to spin all the way around the sun.
3 I kept trying and did a forward roll. (Gymnastics is a part of our curriculum!)
4 Fish starts with the letter F. Firefighters starts with F.
5 It took 6 days for God to create the Earth and He rested on the 7th.
6 There are 7 continents and I live in North America.
7 In the beginning the world was dark.

… and I’m a nervous wreck! It’s just Kindergarten they say. Just sing the ABC’s they say. So why do I have so many books?!?

So. Many. Books.

I was never that mom who cried at the thought of sending her child off to school, I was actually the opposite. It was exciting to think about sending Thomas off to a safe place that would engage him and his love for learning. Never in a million years did I ever think that place would be my kitchen table…

But alas it is. This is what happens when your husband gets offered an awesome job, in a city that you think would be fun to live, but you have no idea where you are going to live and even less of an idea about schools.
So here goes nothing, or hopefully a lot of things. If by May he can read, I’ll call that a success and find the nearest school…building.
He on the other hand is PUMPED though: