My kids

I would like to brag on my children today. They are home from school this week because of Thanksgiving and for conferences. I have a babysitter with them, so that makes a big difference. I fear if I had them at home alone, the house would not be standing when I get home. While I want them to enjoy their vacation and relax, I do want them to do a little work and I want to begin to instill some of my expectations in them about the state of cleanliness I can live with. So, I left them with some cleaning assignments each day.

On Monday, I asked that the living room and dining room be picked up. I was happy to come home and find that it was done. Yea!

On Tuesday, I asked that they pick up the 2nd floor and clean their rooms. The babysitter said, when I got home, “Don’t you want to show your mom how clean your rooms are?”

I knew then that this was going to be good! So, I was preparing my speech of praise and adoration. I was impressed! And I gushed all over my kids about how nice it all looked and how proud I was of them.

Today, there is really nothing left I want them to do except to maintain what they have already done. And the nice thing is that all I have to do is vacuum and laundry. What a treat!

School conferences went well. I told my daughter that hers was very boring because each of her teachers said the same thing:

“She’s such a sweet girl…blah blah blah…”
“She’s doing really well…blah blah blah…”
“She needs to speak up a little more in class.”
“If I could have more kids like her…”

Very boring. And her conferences were very quick. By the time I got to the end of my description of her conferences, she was giggling so I knew she got that I was teasing her and then I told her that I was really proud of her because she had struggled so much at the beginning but she has risen up to the challenge! And I love to hear that she is a sweet girl. One teacher even told me that if I wanted to trade her for her two boys, she was willing to trade.

My boys are doing well too. With a couple of exceptions. Peanut is struggling with paying attention and focusing. We are watching him for more signs of improvement and possibly a need for an ADHD evaluation. I am suspecting he is. So, I am mentally preparing for it.

PH writes his letters from the bottom to the top. So, his teacher and I will be helping him to retrain his brain in how to form his letters from the top down. I talked to him about it last night and he is resistant. But if he continues in this way, he will have great difficulty with cursive writing. He also needs to work on getting his homework turned in.

BB is going to be doing some pre-Algebra. Seriously? Wow. I know he needs a challenge. He needs to work on organization and not losing papers or willfully taking important papers/homework out of his backpack. His teacher has noted that he loves to draw comic books and his desk is full of them. I told her that my house is plastered with his comics too. Maybe this is a direction his life will take.

I’m so proud of my kids. I love them.