Babypie (who, at 14 months, is becoming less and less of a baby) has a busy work day.
Babypie’s babywork–our word for her daily self-assigned tasks–takes up a significant portion of the day that she doesn’t spend sleeping, nursing (which she now calls “thises,” as in, “I want this one”), playing with her brothers, or eating. Babypie has quite the work ethic and doesn’t believe in taking summers off.
Babypie’s babywork includes, but is not limited to:
Climbing onto the time out chair, standing there, and shouting, “MAMA!” (it’s important that someone checks up on me, obviously)
Rearranging Daddyman’s clear bins to use them as steps to reach Daddyman’s box of change, ID cards, and knickknacks
Climbing onto any boxes left in the living room (and possibly getting stuck)
Pushing any baskets around the room
Carrying shoes from one side of the room to the other
Putting items into baskets and dumping them out
Moving the rocking chair
While we were in Chicago, Babypie’s babywork included:
Stacking and unstacking the laundry baskets
Pushing the stool across the kitchen and back
Pushing the rolling office chair around the entire living room
You can see that she works very hard. If we had a cat, I’m sure she’d have to move it. It’s funny that the baby works harder and with less complaint than the older children, especially Captain Science. Maybe I should start letting him self-assign chores.
Or start moving furniture.
word
A comforting hug.
I love watching Captain Science and Babypie playing together. Right now, he’s trying to teach her the parts of her face, but she’s not exactly cooperating.
Captain Science says, “Where’s Babypie’s nose?” Babypie points to her nose.
Captain Science says, “Where’s Babypie’s eyes?” Babypie points to her eyes.
Captain Science says, “Where’s Babypie’s ears?” Babypie flaps her hands vaguely in the area of her ears.
Captain Science says, “Where’s Babypie’s mouth?” Babypie stares at him.
Captain Science over-enunciates, “Where’s Babypie’s mouth?” Babypie continues staring at him.
Smrt Mama says, “Where’s your hair?” Babypie cuts her eyes over to Captain Science, grins, then points to her mouth.
Captain Science says, “Where’s your mouth?” Babypie grins even bigger, laughs, and points at her hair.
Captain Science says, “Where’s your chin?”
Babypie says, “No.”
That was the end of that particular game.
Somehow, the week got away from me and I missed Tuesday entirely. Well, missed it on the blog anyway, as I did at least show up for the co-op that takes place in my house.
Instead, I give you a semi-Wordless Wednesday.
Babypie turned one on Saturday.
Babypie would prefer you not attempt to touch her cupcake.
Babypie would probably be a mean drunk.
*That’s what the Tank calls it.
Daisy asks, “How do you keep Babypie busy (and Tank when he is home) while you are teaching?”
Babypie is an uncommonly easy baby, so entertaining her has not been a problem thus far. She’s happy to wander around, nibble on a snack, play with her toys, and just generally observe our school lessons. The biggest problem with Babypie isn’t that she is herself distracting, but that Captain Science is often distracted by her. He loves her so much, and if he so much as looks at her, she always gives him the biggest, hammiest grins, which means he’ll keep smiling and talking to her instead of doing his work. This can be a problem.
The solution has been to set up multiple work areas for different needs. We have our school room, where my computer, the books, and homeschool materials all live. The desk has chairs on both sides so Captain Science and I can both sit at it. This is my base of operations, where I explain the lessons, go over the work (pointing out things that need correction or asking Captain Science to explain how he came to certain answers/conclusions), or do discussion/instruction portions of work. When Captain Science needs to read without Babypie milling about the same room, or if he needs room to spread out materials (science labs at home, for example), he goes into the gated kitchen to work at the table. When he needs a quiet place to work on math, grammar, writing, etc., he goes down to the roll-top desk we have set up in the craft room on the basement level. The desk is tucked around a corner so there’s not a direct line of sight to upstairs (he can’t see what the smalls are doing, they can’t see and bother him) and it muffles the sound a bit. That works really well and allows him to get work done with varying levels of family interaction as needed.
The Tank is…well, more of an issue. The main day he’s home during intense instruction is Friday, so I have to work hard to make sure he isn’t bothering Captain Science. I sometimes set him up with a movie or show on the opposite level of the house from where Cpt. Science is working. Sometimes I send him up to his room or down to the playroom for a while. When all else fails, he will happily sit at a table with markers and color on paper, himself, or the table. He’s easy to keep busy for short periods of time, but he likes something never every 15-30 minutes. Luckily, he really wants to start homeschooling with us, so I am going to begin phasing in some “table lernin” (his word for work done at a desk/table) for him to do on Fridays, which will give me another way to keep him occupied.
Our big challenge will be next year, when Tank isn’t re-enrolled in preschool and is preschooling at home. I’ll probably have to rotate their work (and play) stations around several times each day to keep Tank interested and out of Captain Science’s hair. I’ll try answering this question again next year and see what I’ve learned!
That’s how the [Smrt] Homeschooler entertains her smalls!
Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com
Captain Science had a great week. Thank goodness, because I was fixin’ to put him out in the yard in a box labeled “free kittens (large).”
He finally, finally passed the Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents bridge to chapter 20 (we won’t even talk about how many tries that took) and then zoomed through chapters 20-24. Even though chapter 24’s work was as long as a bridge and over new concepts, he finished it quickly and completely correct!
Caesar’s English I is also going swimmingly. After finishing the second chapter last week, Captain Science reviewed the materials and then took the cumulative quiz over the materials . 100% — surprising, as he took it in a noisy coffee shop while I was attending a baby-wearing meeting. He’s such a little peach sometimes that it makes those bad weeks much more bearable.
He has also officially completed Grammar Town, though I have to say, bless his heart, we’re having to go back and do review over a few concepts. He missed 10 of the 25 questions of the post-test, due mainly to zooming through without paying attention. He can identify all the relevant parts of speech, phrases, etc. in a sentence, write an example sentence using the required sentences parts, but totally bombed the multiple choice? Yeah, I’m going to call that an effort issue, not a retention issue. It was hard to keep him focused through his work on Practice Town today, as it has started snowing to beat the band, a rare treat in Georgia. We went through a little review of direct object vs. indirect object vs. subject complement, then he broke down a few example sentences for me (all correct), before I booted him out into the snow, where he is currently leaving giant footprints all over the formerly pristine snowy driveway.
Our mini-co-op is going swimmingly. We added new students to Daddyman’s game class this week and two of the new students (some of my favorites from my writing class last semester) stayed to do Patchfire’s class on the brain and my writing class. We now have an age spread from 9-12 (maybe almost 13?) and an additional girl, which is nice for balance. They came up with their board game ideas, looked at slides of the brain online, and worked on the main conflict from their stories. The dynamic is just perfect now, as the oldest student is genuinely admired and respected by the younger kids, which lets him act as a leader and keep them on track. Love these kids, seriously. Such a wonderful group, every single one of them, from our morning gamers to our afternoon writers.
Science in general is moving in a fun direction. Captain Science’s Thames and Kosmos Physics Workshop came, so he and EG spent Thursday building various machines to test force and weight. Patchfire et al. have prior commitments on Tues/Thurs of next week, so I’ll be managing the brain class and having Cpt. Science catch up on a couple of experiments from the phsyics kit next week — something to do with dropping potatoes and making a sail car? Or maybe sailing a potato car?
The Tank surprised me this week with his ability to write his name, which isn’t exactly short or easy (and we’ve had some arguments over the inclusion of the letter “v” on a few occasions). He wrote it on 10 valentines for his classmates and teachers, with no help and only one or two gentle reminders that his name doesn’t start with “O.” He missed class on Wednesday due to a mild fever the night before (24 hour fever policy? — homeschool doesn’t have that), and when I walked him in, all the little boys in his completely-male (by lack of girl enrollment, not by sex-segregating design) class were sitting at their desks with giant globs of pink play-dough (made by yours truly) and hollered, “You’re here!” His teacher also gave him a huge hug and said, “I’m so glad you made it today!” Queue moderate guilt over not re-enrolling.
Babypie’s newest skill this week is incessant chattering. She talks almost constantly in nonsensical syllables that perfectly mimic the tone and form of our speech.
I stayed busy with both a La Leche League meeting and a baby-wearing social, plus the co-op and science at Patchfire’s. I’ve been under the weather and am dragging, so I’m amazed our week has been this productive. I just want to drink coffee and snuggle under a blanket all day, but that’s not a good way to get homeschooling accomplished, sadly.
It’s currently snowing all fluffy and Yankee-like out there, so I’m going to take some pictures and document this magnificent snowfall. I’m sure I’ve forgotten stuff from the week, but such is the nature of things.
Lacking an adequate amount of naturally-occurring snow, Atlantans must make do with the manufactured snow at Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is the largest single piece of exposed granite in the world and has this carved on it:
Officer Daddyman (my Midwestern transplant) is unimpressed by the manufactured snow. Patchfire says he looks Canadian in this picture, but really, he looks Toledo-an.
Babypie thought Snow Mountain was the very worst thing ever in her entire life, and she cried all day long.
The Tank worked tirelessly, building snowman after snowman.
Where’s Captain Science?
Smrt Mama and Babypie take a snack break (but only for Babypie).
Back to building a snow fort. Captain Science is super-fierce.
I’m not sure the Tank knew what was coming.
