Last night we had an evening that actually matched what I'd envisioned when I thought about having a family.
It was nothing special really, remarkable in its routineness. Except that so little we deal with could fall under the heading of routine.
Piper and I got home about the same time last night and we just seemed to work together to get the kids settled, get them dinner and deal with homework.
Tigger is starting to have more and more homework. It's not that hard - practicing letters and logging all the books he's read, and whether he read on his own or whether he was read to, but it is getting more consistent. Some days are good homeowrk days, and some days it's a real struggle for him to maintain his focus and get the work done. Last night was a good night. Piper made dinner, I unloaded the dishwasher and Tigger sat at the counter and did his homework.
Pumpkin, who was also sitting at the counter wanted in on the act, declaring that he wanted to do his homework. Now, they don't have much homework in Kindergarten, but he does have some letter sheets and his speech therapist sent home a sheet of opposites for him to work on, so we ran through those.
All night there was no yelling, no fighting. Everyone got along and we had fun with the homework. I want more nights like that.
In the past few weeks, I've noticed a real change in the Pumpkin. He uses full sentences more often than not. I hear fewer Curious George imitations and much more real conversation. He speaks logically, is able to communicate his hunger for knowledge and though he has always shown an interest in books, he is demanding to be read to with greater regularity. He expresses pride in his accomplishments.
It's like someone has opened up his brain and let the words out. I knew it would happen eventually, but it took. so. long.
School. Public school has done this for him. Our tiny little school has him seeing a speech therapist, and has him working in, not one, but two special groups where his language skills are being bolstered. Mostly they are dealing with consonant sounds, just basic stuff, but stuff that many kindergarten-aged kids apparently come in with.
I met with his teacher the other day and we talked about occupational therapy for some of his sensory issues. I'm so relieved. She's not overwhelmed by him and she sees what I do - that there's a lot going on in his brain. I was afraid that it would get lost in all his sensory issues and the resulting behavior, I was afraid that they would get so bogged down in dealing with that (as I guess I have) that they would have nothing left to help him unlock that potential.
Instead, they're doing what I have thus far been unable to do - deal with both at once.
You know, you hear so much negativity about public schools that just seems so outside of my experience. Homeschoolers make us public school parents out to be lazy, uncaring, out for the free babysitting. We just dump our kids unthinking into the children's warehouse where they churn out seatwork all day, robbed of chances for exploration. Nothing could be further from our experience with both boys.
I've had the privilege to meet, and occasionally work with, some truly dedicated professionals at this school. When Tigger came home, I couldn't wait for him to be a part of this community. Last year, he finally did so, and though we struggled here and there, it was a successful year and he left Kindergarten a reader. This year he is working with maps and maths and understanding different kinds of documents. He enjoys it. I enjoy it. We talked about the planets the other night. We had fun with it. His teachers support him, and in many ways, they support me. I never bought into the go-it-alone stuff.
In two years the school has helped accomplish something I couldn't do in twice that amount of time - they got TIgger to enjoy writing and drawing, and got the Pumpkin to use his words.
So when the Parent Bloggers Network asks "What are your kids learning in school?" I'd have to say that they are learning to love learning.
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I would have written this post anyway, but our perfect family evening happened to coincide with a Blogblast sponsored by The Parent Bloggers Network and Scholastic.com. Use the coupon code BLOGBLAST at the Scholatic.com Parents' site and get 10% off an order of $25 or more between 10/12 and 10/21. Happy Reading.
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