On Track

I may not be as in control of my life as I'd like, but when it really comes down to it, we're basically on track.

I'm still losing weight. Only 10 more pounds to go, can you believe it? This is actually the hardest part because you get complacent and think "I can eat nothing but lots of birthday cake and ice cream for dinner tonight because I only have 10 more pounds to lose and that won't be hard." I never DID lose the last 10 pounds after Roo and that was precisely why. So I have to have a little mental pep talk with myself and recommit to some goals, which is hard with the holidays coming up. Thank you, readers, for being my accountability. I appreciate you.

School went very well this week. Bean had gotten a bit behind on his math, so I made him a deal on Monday. If he would catch up, I would play Settlers of Catan with him. I have never seen that kid work so hard. He got probably a dozen pages of math problems done. Then he BEAT ME at Catan. I couldn't believe it! It was his first time playing and I was NOT trying to let him win. He has a great mind for strategy, just like his dad.

He's also been working hard on piano. He learned to play the Porcupine Song this week, which is an adaptation of Hayden's Surprise Symphony. I played the real symphony for him on a CD, telling him the story why Hayden wrote it. He thought that was fabulous and he practiced the piano a lot after that. At one point he made me sit down for a "Recital" where he played through the 10 or so songs in his book that he's learned and made me clap hard for him after each one. I love to hear him play.

We did a lot of reading aloud this week, more than usual but still less than I feel my children ideally should have. I got lots of books from the library about colonial times, which are mostly only interesting to Bean, with one exception. One of the picture books we checked out concerns the Liberty Bell and how it was hidden from the British when they were coming to occupy Philadelphia. Fish has fallen in LOVE with this book for some reason. One morning after reading it he told me he wanted to be George Washington for Halloween. YESSSS!!!

A few weeks ago there was a contest on my friend Janet's blog for which the prize was a free subscription to The Old Schoolhouse homeschool magazine. I won the subscription and recently received my first issue. It was a much longer and more well-put-together magazine than I had expected and I have really been enjoying reading though it. It has given me lots of support and encouragement, which every homeschooling mother needs bales of. I have become aware of many more curriculum resources through their ads, several of which I'm very excited about. And last night I read an article in there that changed my entire paradigm about my son Bean.

The article was about kinesthetic learners. I've known Bean was a hands-on kind of kid and I've known that he had challenges when it came to learning. This article put it all together for me and made it all make sense as to why he does things the way he does. He is a kinesthetic learner! Then it gave me suggestions as to how I can work with that and not against it. Finally, it pointed me to resources online that can give me further information and suggestions. I ended up staying up way too late researching all this. I was so excited! I totally need to change my approach with him in so many ways to help him succeed and now I'm finding out how to do this.

I would love to tell you more about this, and I hope I will soon, but right now it's time for me to stop blogging and pay attention to my children!