Top Ten Things I Learned During Our First Week of School
(As opposed to the bottom 10 things I learned? What a well thought out title, Miss. H! Good grief.)
10. Sometimes, the earth might shake a little. And then a lot. And then you will hang up the telephone (because you were on the telephone when the earth was shaking) on your friend to go running downstairs and outside. Dumb. Next time, we will dive under the dining room table.
9. Experiencing an earthquake lowers your tolerance for bumps and shakes in the house. For at least 3 days following the earthquake, my heart skipped a beat every time my wall-sharing neighbor ran down the hall. Or walked up the stairs. Or anything else that made a peep and shook the floor a bit. Eeek!
8. It is possible to have two totally unrelated natural disasters within a week of each other. Why anyone would have to go through such a thing, I don’t know. But a lot of you experienced it all yourself!
7. Hurricanes are never fun, especially when they hit in the middle of the night. The wind was blowing so hard it sounded like a huge train behind our house. I thought for sure a tornado had sprung up nearby.
6. Our housing development predictably loses power. There was no doubt we were going to lose power. If we were still in Vegas and I were a betting woman, I would now be a rich woman moving out of our neighborhood and into a nice big house that never loses power and has a backup generator just in case.
5. When you know the power is going to go out, you can pack up your freezer and take it to your mom’s house, where she will keep it safe until the power returns. This is especially reassuring when your mom has a backup generator. It is even more fun when the kids are beside themselves at the idea of seeing their MiMi twice in one week! Saaweeet!
4. After an earthquake and a hurricane, chocolate is necessary to recover from the unavoidable stress. This is where chocolate oatmeal cookies come into play. Again. If I follow this logic too much, I will only be able to look at my favorite pair of Gap jeans, but never wear them. But right now, who cares. Where is the chocolate?
3. In between earthquakes and hurricanes, we had very wonderful days of school! I was not quite sure how much we would actually accomplish with a half participating 4 year old, needy 1 year old, and very hungry 7 week old. As it turns out, a whole lot can be accomplished when one plans for ways to entertain the 1 year old.
2. The 1 year old only needs crayons, paper, lots of smiles, music, laughter, and minor direction to stay entertained while the older kids are in school. For the most part, we are also able to find ways to include the 1 year old so that he feels very involved. This eventually leads to him wanting to go play by himself after awhile. Another score. The 7 week old just ate when he was hungry. It was rather anticlimactic.
1. Ambleside Online is a curriculum based on reading. We love reading. We love Ambleside Online. If you are bored and looking for something to do or a suggestion for something to read, try poking around amblesideonline.org and I am sure you will find a great book recommendation from one of their many book lists. More on how we integrated Ambleside Online into our school days whenever I get off my duff and make an actual home school blog. Or maybe I could just do that here and mix it all in. Huh. What do you think? Do you wanna read about all of that school stuff here? Or should that maybe go elsewhere?
