Babble

Only two days left this week. Then the long weekend and then back to the grin on Monday.

I feel kind of bad that we didn't get into the school groove already, but I knew that it would be difficult with my nephew here. He changes the routine and wants to spend his time interacting with his cousins, which is totally understandable. We still did lots of educational things, when I think of it, but I had hoped to have a routine in place before school starts so that I wouldn't have to focus on a morning school routine AND the school routine with the two oldest here.

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It's only supposed to get up to 15C today. That seems so cold after the 30C we had the other day!! We'll still go to park day, though. But I'm thinking I may wear pants.

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School. I thought about my post the other day and don't want people to think that nobody should send their children to public school. My main point was that if you are interested and you have those two primary fears, you don't really have to worry. It's also a bit of a rebuttal to those who are against homeschooling. I don't think public schools should by any means be abolished. There are all kinds of reasons to send a child to school. The typical criticisms of homeschooling, though, just fall through when you look at them deeper.

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My environment was not improved upon yesterday at all. I did not sleep well the night before, then the weather was crummy, then my niece was tired and crabby and clingy... Things compounded. The school room is done. I've begun tackling the school shelves and even picked up a few things in the basement. I don't think I'm going to go for decluttering at this point in the basement--just get bins back on shelves and whatnot.

I'm finding for the school shelves it's difficult to plan out how things should be. My niece is now getting into everything so some things aren't safe. A classroom Montessori environment, even for toddlers (there are some part-time toddler programs out there, not here, but in other places) is totally focused on the age group occupying the classroom. Everything that's there is for the children. The shelves are the right height for them, the chairs and the tables, the materials are all displayed for them. My environment is somewhat different. I've got this 18mo toddler, then an almost 6yo (he's at the end of the 3-6 group), then my almost 9yo (falls into the end of the 6-9's or the beginning of the 9-12's), then the 12yo (academically in the 9-12's, but otherwise in the 12-15's) and his sister (in the 15-18 range). What would be ideal for the toddler limits everyone else. If I put everything up high so that my niece can't touch what she shouldn't, then ds can't reach it. If I put everything out thining of him, she'll get into stuff. *sigh*