I wound up at a crisis pregnancy center today. Not because I'm having a crisis pregnancy, although wee one #5 is on the way in April and I think I'm sort of always in a state of minor crisis. They had hired a new nurse and she was doing a week of intensive ultrasound training and they needed "ultrasound models" (the first time I've ever been called a model!) for her to practice on. I'm all about seeing lots of baby pictures, so I signed up.
The little one is doing just fine in there, heartbeat just galloping away like it should. And they appreciated the fact that as I'm on my fifth baby, I have pretty much lost all medical modesty and didn't mind that they scanned away for nearly an hour, checking here and there and practicing with all the settings on their fancy new ultrasound machine.
That fancy new ultrasound machine was another reason why I was particularly excited to be there - SSHH is very active in the Knights of Columbus and one of their initiatives is purchasing ultrasound machines for crisis pregnancy centers. The nurses can check the health and viability of the babies who come in, but statistics show that the vast majority of women considering abortion who see their baby - little arms, little legs, little heart beating even as the baby is the size of a raisin - choose to continue their pregnancy. This particular ultrasound machine was bought by the Knights of Columbus, and so I was eager to check it out.
The nurse, the ultrasound trainer, and I had a chance to chat when they were done scanning and it was so heartening to hear how strongly they viewed their vocation. They are in the business of saving babies, and they truly rejoice for every baby born. I breathed a sigh of relief when our baby's heartbeat was found, and said that I always held my breath during a pregnancy until I saw a happy, healthy baby on that screen. The trainer smiled - and said that she held her breath during every ultrasound until she saw that healthy heartbeat, too.
It was wonderful to be around medical personnel who were so wonderfully supportive of life. I love the obstetricians at the practice I go to; they are caring and skilled. But at my last visit, when they asked what kind of contraception I would like and I replied none - we would plan our family naturally - they were honestly flummoxed. They repeated the question, asked if I was sure I didn't want the pill or to talk about other options - after all, I had four children and was not beyond my childbearing years. It took several polite but firm replies to get them to let me go on my merry contraception-free way. I understand that the vast majority of women do want some form of contraception and that it is their job to provide it - but it was disconcerting that they found a woman who did not want that to be such an anomaly.
So, surprisingly, I found myself more completely comfortable talking with the nurses at the crisis pregnancy center than I do talking with my own obstetrician. They thought a fifth child was wonderful, and pointing out all the parts that make up the new baby's support system in the womb, smiled and said that it was amazing how God provides. They are in the business of celebrating life, in whatever circumstances that life finds itself. They spoke respectfully and with care of the women who come to the center, and it was clear that their lives were valued just as much as their unborn babies'. And so I've got an addition to my prayer list, and a place that I'd love to volunteer at someday, and was was heartened by a few people in a small office who are doing amazing work every day.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Monday, August 25, 2014
The First Day, Our Second Time Around
We started our 2014-2015 school year today and our first day was so very different from last year. The kids know what to expect now and so there were no nerves on their part - just excitement to start school. They've been asking to do work in the new schoolroom for weeks, so they were thrilled to finally get to use it. They spun around in their new desk chairs and switched their new lamps onandoffandonandoff and Doodle made herself a pest by emptying a few bookshelves of their contents and there was general cheerful chaos as we jumped in.
And there were far fewer nerves on my part, as well. I know how to manage our homeschool day and how to handle any hiccups that come up, but even more than that, I realize now that a lousy day or a few bad moments does not represent failure, and that the best way to handle it is to laugh, shrug, and move on (hopefully with a strategy to handle it better the next time). SSHH is also firmly behind our homeschooling enterprise this year, which makes a big difference in my approach. Last year was very much a trial year for us and SSHH in particular had concerns and questions about how this was going to work, and I felt quite a bit of self-imposed pressure to make every day and moment spectacular - "See! We are beaming ALL THE TIME and learning ALL THE THINGS and are done by noon EVERY DAY! Is this not the most perfect thing EVER?!?!" And so when reality struck and kids and mom were melting down and work wasn't done by bedtime, it felt catastrophic. This year we are out to have fun and learn as a family, and sometimes it may be wonderful and sometimes it might lead to us all rolling our eyes at each other, but our outlook is much better from the start.
The perennial question when the kids meet new people is "what grade are you in?" The usual reply is 3rd grade, kindergarten, and pre-k, but that really just covers their ages, and as far as school is concerned it isn't an honest answer. Sprout is doing 3rd grade work for several subjects, but his reading, writing, science, and grammar is a grade or two ahead. He's excited to start Latin this year and start learning computer programming. SweetPea is five, but she's doing 1st grade math and grammar, and is reading longer chapter books now. She's doing grade-level religion because it will be tied to sacramental preparation in a couple of years and we don't want to muddy the waters there. And three-and-a-half-year old SweetPotato is working through kindergarten phonics and math books, although her coordination isn't on a kindergarten level yet.
So I have no idea what grade the kids are in. Last year we made signs on the first day of school that announced that we had a second grader and a preschooler, but this year our signs just say "2014-2015 Henry Homeschool." The "grades" have become pretty fluid, and each child is working where they're at in each subject and making progress, and as long as that doesn't stall, I'll be happy that we're on a good path.
We had a short first day of academics, and then we celebrated the new school year by heading to the waterpark and getting Happy Meals for dinner. Tomorrow we buckle down in earnest and work through a full day. While I'm sure we'll have our ups and downs, we're in a really good place at the start of this school year, and we're committed to being, as the Church instructs us, "the primary educators of our children." And really, there's nothing else we'd rather be doing.
And there were far fewer nerves on my part, as well. I know how to manage our homeschool day and how to handle any hiccups that come up, but even more than that, I realize now that a lousy day or a few bad moments does not represent failure, and that the best way to handle it is to laugh, shrug, and move on (hopefully with a strategy to handle it better the next time). SSHH is also firmly behind our homeschooling enterprise this year, which makes a big difference in my approach. Last year was very much a trial year for us and SSHH in particular had concerns and questions about how this was going to work, and I felt quite a bit of self-imposed pressure to make every day and moment spectacular - "See! We are beaming ALL THE TIME and learning ALL THE THINGS and are done by noon EVERY DAY! Is this not the most perfect thing EVER?!?!" And so when reality struck and kids and mom were melting down and work wasn't done by bedtime, it felt catastrophic. This year we are out to have fun and learn as a family, and sometimes it may be wonderful and sometimes it might lead to us all rolling our eyes at each other, but our outlook is much better from the start.
The perennial question when the kids meet new people is "what grade are you in?" The usual reply is 3rd grade, kindergarten, and pre-k, but that really just covers their ages, and as far as school is concerned it isn't an honest answer. Sprout is doing 3rd grade work for several subjects, but his reading, writing, science, and grammar is a grade or two ahead. He's excited to start Latin this year and start learning computer programming. SweetPea is five, but she's doing 1st grade math and grammar, and is reading longer chapter books now. She's doing grade-level religion because it will be tied to sacramental preparation in a couple of years and we don't want to muddy the waters there. And three-and-a-half-year old SweetPotato is working through kindergarten phonics and math books, although her coordination isn't on a kindergarten level yet.
So I have no idea what grade the kids are in. Last year we made signs on the first day of school that announced that we had a second grader and a preschooler, but this year our signs just say "2014-2015 Henry Homeschool." The "grades" have become pretty fluid, and each child is working where they're at in each subject and making progress, and as long as that doesn't stall, I'll be happy that we're on a good path.
We had a short first day of academics, and then we celebrated the new school year by heading to the waterpark and getting Happy Meals for dinner. Tomorrow we buckle down in earnest and work through a full day. While I'm sure we'll have our ups and downs, we're in a really good place at the start of this school year, and we're committed to being, as the Church instructs us, "the primary educators of our children." And really, there's nothing else we'd rather be doing.
Friday, August 1, 2014
Schoolroom!
It has been a summer-long ordeal - but we have a new schoolroom! Last year we started with Sprout as our only "serious" homeschooler, and so we had a small shelf in our home office with books and supplies, and he did his work at the dining room table. SweetPea soon showed that she was ready for more consistent schoolwork, so she joined Sprout and the table suddenly seemed smaller. When SweetPotato begged for her own folder and worksheets, school time turned into Sprout spending half his time distracted and the morning punctuated by wails of "MOOOOOMMMMM! HER worksheet is touching MY book!!!!"
Something needed to be done.
We had a large family room that was a messy jumble of toys, and a full third of which was taken up by a large brick bar and cabinets. Someone had some rockin' parties in that room thirty years ago. It was dark and smelled kind of funny. And we decided that it would make a perfect schoolroom and playroom.
So we demolished and rebuilt - SSHH did manly things with a sledgehammer and PonyMommy repaired drywall and whitewashed bricks for hours on end after the kids were in bed. If anything can drive one to tears, it's remodeling.
We wanted an organized space for school, with separate workspaces for each child and lots of storage. We wanted to separate the "hands-off, mom-only" supplies from the "kid-accessible" schoolbooks. We wanted a central space to work one-on-one with a child and to do science or art together. Since I work from home most of the time, the schoolroom also needed an area where I could do my own work while simultaneously being available for the schoolkids' questions.
We also wanted a playspace that gave the kids room to spread out their toys and use their imaginations. We wanted to have those toys organized so they could actually find things to play with. And we wanted the play area to be visually accessible from the schoolroom, so that toddlers could play supervised while the older children worked, and so that as the younger ones finished their school day, they could move into play while I still kept tabs on them.
And we ended up with an absolutely perfect room - we are so excited. The kids are even asking to do schoolwork now so they can sit at their new desks (and spin their new rolly chairs). We've spent the whole summer sledgehammering walls and repairing drywall and painting and whitewashing bricks (my pet project) and laying carpet and organizing toys (I threw out seven garbage bags full of old broken/mismatched stuff. Seriously. Don't tell the kids.). The finishing touches are done, right down to the addition of the "class pet," guinea pigs Oreo and S'more. We can't wait to start the school year and use this fantastic space!
There are a few finishing touches left - the walls are bare, but I'm going to wait and see what kind of posters and things seem right over the course of the school year. Sprout is going to be studying cells this year and has asked for a microscope for the school room - but anything decent that will last us through high school is not inexpensive, so we'll be waiting on that. And we need a new computer; Sprout is becoming quite the computer programming whiz and will be starting to use a CGI program for children this year, so the decade-old computers he's been using are no longer doing the job. As a temporary solution I'll be giving my (also elderly) laptop to the schoolroom, and we'll look at new computers once our bank account has finished reeling from the remodel.
So enjoy a few (okay, many) pictures of the before, during, and after - and wish us luck as we start the year in a few short weeks!
Something needed to be done.
We had a large family room that was a messy jumble of toys, and a full third of which was taken up by a large brick bar and cabinets. Someone had some rockin' parties in that room thirty years ago. It was dark and smelled kind of funny. And we decided that it would make a perfect schoolroom and playroom.
So we demolished and rebuilt - SSHH did manly things with a sledgehammer and PonyMommy repaired drywall and whitewashed bricks for hours on end after the kids were in bed. If anything can drive one to tears, it's remodeling.
We wanted an organized space for school, with separate workspaces for each child and lots of storage. We wanted to separate the "hands-off, mom-only" supplies from the "kid-accessible" schoolbooks. We wanted a central space to work one-on-one with a child and to do science or art together. Since I work from home most of the time, the schoolroom also needed an area where I could do my own work while simultaneously being available for the schoolkids' questions.
We also wanted a playspace that gave the kids room to spread out their toys and use their imaginations. We wanted to have those toys organized so they could actually find things to play with. And we wanted the play area to be visually accessible from the schoolroom, so that toddlers could play supervised while the older children worked, and so that as the younger ones finished their school day, they could move into play while I still kept tabs on them.
And we ended up with an absolutely perfect room - we are so excited. The kids are even asking to do schoolwork now so they can sit at their new desks (and spin their new rolly chairs). We've spent the whole summer sledgehammering walls and repairing drywall and painting and whitewashing bricks (my pet project) and laying carpet and organizing toys (I threw out seven garbage bags full of old broken/mismatched stuff. Seriously. Don't tell the kids.). The finishing touches are done, right down to the addition of the "class pet," guinea pigs Oreo and S'more. We can't wait to start the school year and use this fantastic space!
There are a few finishing touches left - the walls are bare, but I'm going to wait and see what kind of posters and things seem right over the course of the school year. Sprout is going to be studying cells this year and has asked for a microscope for the school room - but anything decent that will last us through high school is not inexpensive, so we'll be waiting on that. And we need a new computer; Sprout is becoming quite the computer programming whiz and will be starting to use a CGI program for children this year, so the decade-old computers he's been using are no longer doing the job. As a temporary solution I'll be giving my (also elderly) laptop to the schoolroom, and we'll look at new computers once our bank account has finished reeling from the remodel.
So enjoy a few (okay, many) pictures of the before, during, and after - and wish us luck as we start the year in a few short weeks!
Before we started:
Time for some demolition!
Child labor.
Oooh, those cabinets need to go, too.
Painty-paint with feline help.
Carpet tester.
And the new room, all finished and bee-yoo-ti-ful.
Nice organized toys.
Desks, work table, and "mom's stuff" in the corner.
School books, organized by subject.
The new class pets, Oreo and S'more.
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