Ummm, Is It 5?!

Most of the time, as a Mom, I question if I'm doing the right thing.  Like all moms, after my boys are grown, I want them to turn and look back over their shoulder and think, "My parents did a great job raising me. I'm a lucky guy.'

I don't always get it right, but sometimes, just sometimes, I hit my high and I can really pat myself on the back and say, 'Good job, Momma." I recently hit one of those highs. 

 I love summer time with all the swimming, sun, sleeping in, staying up late, impromptu ice cream trips, and overall lack of schedule.  The downside to summer is all that fun leads to mush brains.  No learning, no structure, and a mind filled with video games makes for a bad student come fall.  I was determined to not let Harrison fall behind and, more importantly, get Gavin ahead of the ball starting Kindergarten.  Gavin is not excited about starting school.  Really, he's not excited about anything that involves too much work.  He's going to be my kid that we have to push, push, push.  I felt that if he started school unenthusiastic (which he is) and then overwhelmed by how much he's expected to know, he'd too quickly fall behind.

Between workbooks, teaching websites, and worksheets I printed from the Internet we actually stuck to an almost daily schedule of school work.  It wasn't extreme, trust me, they still had a mostly leisure summer, but it was enough that they learned.  Harrison was easy to teach, I would show him a concept, give him a few examples and he would then complete his work with relative ease.  Gavin?  Oh, Gavin!  He made me have a whole new appreciation for teachers.  This is why parents must have more than one child.  If you have just one you get cocky-- What?  You're second grader doesn't know division??  Well, my amazingonlychildwhoissosmart learned that easy-peasy."  It takes your second child to humble you, make you admit if you're going to take credit for your smart one then you also have to claim the one that perhaps isn't so much. 


Gavin started the summer off struggling with adding 4+0.  "Ummmm, is it 5?!  Maybe 3?!?"  Finally I had him use pennies to visualize that zero is actually nothing, nadda.  It. Was. Painful. 

 But, we persisted and with the help of a great website, www.abcya.com, Gavin not only mastered 4+0, but he excitedly moved on to math like 36+7!  And this must be what keeps teachers going--seeing a child learn and get motivated about it!  Gavin is more confident, and so am I!, in himself in just how smart that noggin is between his ears!

 Pucker up!

Me telling Gavin to 'kiss his brain' because he is so smart!

Smack that smooch on that brain!

 As our summer is coming to a close I can confidently send my kids to school knowing that I did all I could to have them prepared and ready to learn.  I guess, like teachers, it's parenting like this that keeps me motivated to keep going and trying my best. 





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone