Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Holiday? We're daring to be different, I guess

While many of you are celebrating the festivities of this Independence Day, the Drews household is not.  While we did talk about the what/why's of Independence Day, there was no picnic, barbecue, boating or shooting of fireworks for us.  It's not because we're party-poopers though.   Here is why we actually had our lessons (read: school!) today:


 


1.  It's been raining for a couple of days now...and expected to continue throughout the night.


 


2. We didn't make any real plans for the day since we expected dh to be working (which he now is not).  Plus, all the rain that was forecasted makes for swarms of swamp mosquitoes that attack you without mercy.   So no lake or outside activities for us!


 


3.  We school year-round but have taken the last two weeks off...not intentionally, mind you, but just because we've had invitations to the beach with friends, celebrated our 10 yr wedding anniversary and just had other things to do!


 


4.  Dash reminded me the other day that it's only two more months until he's in second grade.  Ummmm...we have WAY more than two weeks worth of work left-- so we better double up!


 


5.  The boys do better with routine.  Two weeks off in a row means for bored boys.  Bored boys fight.  Bored boys get in trouble.  Bored boys irritate mommy and make me into a yelling, angry, frustrated lunatic that nobody wants to be around.  By the way, I'm 200% better now! :-)


 


I am rather pleased with how our lessons went today.  We covered a lot of material...not just because I wanted to, but it actually made sense to the boys and they were interested in continuing.  You don't find that in public schools very often, do ya?!   The only thing left to do is finish the last part of our current read-aloud The Light at Tern Rock.  Oh, and I really want to do the glo-germ experiment that I ordered from Fizzbang Science (thanks, eyecorn!).


 


So what are you doing today?  Am I the only one who was a mean mommy and had lessons today?  (Although technically it's not mean when your children don't fuss about it...and they really don't know what "normal" is for other children anyway!)

19 comments:

mominpa said...

we did lessons today too...it was actually a good day here too. Dh did work and he is in the middle of a long work week (covering other vacations) so that was our 'main' reason!!


I so understand too many days w/o lessons make not good days!!

Suzanne said...

...that you have the discipline to "do school" (whatever *that* means) in the midst of summer!


I hear ya... regarding the mosquitos. Ugh!


Thanks for leaving a comment about the photo on my blog. Dh's mom got that outfit for her. :-)

chickadee said...

we did not do school today but i would have if i had been in your shoes. we have before on holidays if we had no plans. but we have a rule that when dad is off they are off and he was off. we did school yesterday.


i also had a houseful of family which i always enjoy then we spent the late afternoon and evening resting and playing around. it was a nice day. it rained here too.

Amber said...

I think you may have an idea what I've been doing today....or yesterday, but we do school on holidays all the time, so I guess I'm mean too...like a pirate-LOL!


See ya:)


God Bless,

Amber

OurLittleSchoolRoom said...

I know what you mean about the kids being more difficult when their routine is disrupted. My poor children hardly know what holidays are, except that the bank, post office and dr. office are all closed, and the schoolbus doesn't run. In the summer they don't even have the school bus to remind them. We could celebrate every one, or none of them. Mostly we don't do anything.


Glad you got a good day of school in. I should get my books in the next few weeks. I'll be eager to start then.


Have a great day!

Karen

gal51 said...

You're not a mean mommy! We went to a friend's house to their pool ... it's nice with a covered area with ceiling fans, but it was still 100 degrees in the shade today!!!!! UGH!!! Too hot to be outside ... a friend's husband actually passed out from the heat ... so staying indoors in the air conditioning sounds like a nice day to me :-)


~Heather

DanielleW said...

Yes you are a mean, mean mommy. LOL But then again, this world needs more "mean" mommies like you.


We didn't do school unless you count talking about the space shuttle Discovery and watching it launch. (in fact right now he is playing with legos and made a space ship that is going to the moon, which happens to be my desk. LOL)


There were no picnics or parades for us. We went to the mall to try and spend a gift certificate from Christmas and then we went to visit Cameron's great-great-grandmother. I knew that she wouldn't be out and about because she hates crowded things but that she would be grateful for a visit from us.


Next year I have plans to do a study on Independence Day so that it is more than just "Fireworks Day". And maybe a study about fireworks to learn why they do what they do.


Sorry for the book,

Danielle

cricket313 said...

I was just going to sit home. But when we got home from my mom's we had an invitation to a friend's for a Birthday/4th of July party... I knew the kids would have a good time. (And with hubby away..we need distraction.) No big deal.

cricket313 said...

Just had to tell you I enjoyed your poem. Good luck


Michelle

cricket313 said...

These past few days I've been on blogging (here and myspace) way tooooooo much. My kids have been patient with me. Although I've probably ignored them way too much. Like I said it keeps me busy. I got the slideshow at www.rockyou.com It was really easy. I heard about it from a friend's myspace blog. I've been over there meeting up with old friends from high school...ahhh if I only knew then what I know now.


wardssward said...

I can totally relate to #5. I think you got it right by saying that they get bored. We take the summer off from our schooling and I think it does create more time to turn on each other. Guess I need to find more things to occupy their time, huh? Also, Happy Belated Anniversary to you, too! A friend once told me that "marriage takes work, but it's fun working at it." :-)

~Connie

lonestaracademy said...

You were a living example of what our country is all about. Thank you for sharing your day with us.


We were at the lake and were lucky enough not to get much rain.


It's always nice to find a texas blogger. I will have to add you to my friends list now

lonestaracademy said...

You were a living example of what our country is all about. Thank you for sharing your day with us.


We were at the lake and were lucky enough not to get much rain.


It's always nice to find a texas blogger. I will have to add you to my friends list now

lonestaracademy said...

You were a living example of what our country is all about. Thank you for sharing your day with us.


We were at the lake and were lucky enough not to get much rain.


It's always nice to find a texas blogger. I will have to add you to my friends list now

lonestaracademy said...

You were a living example of what our country is all about. Thank you for sharing your day with us.


We were at the lake and were lucky enough not to get much rain.


It's always nice to find a texas blogger. I will have to add you to my friends list now

jenniferwells said...

hi

thanks for sharing your year round schooling style. we took off time for summer break, but a shorter amount then in the past. I have been thinking about year round.


Jen

mamaduso said...

Whoa! Look at this fantastic blog. Jeepers this is just great. I love the new look.

Susan

KarenW said...

We had a cookout for our friends here in Romania. American holidays are a great opportunity for us to reach out ito our community and get to know more people. Romanians love America and Americans. So we grilled some chicken and had some potato salad and baked beans. I wanted watermelon but it was just too expensive for a big crowd and I really couldn't get that many melons cold anyway.


I love the idea of schooling year round. We are doing two days a week this summer to attempt to catch up (ha!)


LOVE your new template!!

theheartofthehome said...

LOL! Actually, since we are living overseas, it was also too hot to do anything, the Korean mosquitoes will eat you alive and there were no fireworks because the new National Museum was built right next to post so fireworks would disturb the National Treasures....

So, we colored the original 13 colonies, talked about the Liberty Bell, and then Mike and DS played Revolutionary War together for a long time.

Then we went to post and had an all-American meal of Burger King.

But, seriously, that is what is great about homeschooling, isn't it? Choose your days to do lessons or not.

Hey, must be a boy thing too. I only have the one and when we took some time off recently, he also became a pint-sized tyrant.

Still loving this look!

Blessings,

Janet (visit my blog at The Heart of the Home)

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