Home Sweet Simple Home

Quiet? HA!

I realize I’ve been quiet on here so far today. Quiet here in blogdom- yes. On the homestead? No.
Busy, busy day here. My bible study last nite was cancelled and so I didn’t get over to the church to drop off my weekly bulletin insert to the secretary. I didn’t want to just make a trip out to the church just to drop off a piece of paper. So we also ran to the grocery store to pick up some toothpaste on sale (kids just informed me they ran out 2 days ago! Thank goodness for those free little tubes from the dentist!) and one of those clip on toddler toilet seats for Mr. Conductor. He has been an infrequent toilet user for his Daddy but not interested in impressing me until the other day . . . . I made QUITE the deal out of it. We had a pee-rade (LOL) marching around the house sing-songing “Hooray for Mr. Conductor”. So anyway- Mr. Conductor has been using the potty at least twice a day and I have found that no matter how hard I try to make sure he’s pointing down . . . . . well, lets just say my bathroom floor is really, really clean! Remember, this is my first and only boy- I haven’t had to worry about this particular potty moment until now.
Oh and I don’t like the potty seat we got. He had to use it RIGHT away but the formed indent that is suppose to keep it down and in- didn’t. As toilet seats go- I think this one is a dud. And since we used it . . . . can’t return it. Lesson learned. Perhaps Mr. Steady can figure out something for me.
Anyway- we were conversing about my day and that’s only part! My Mama stopped by with her poochie Lily (straight from the groomers) and asked us to dog sit while she quickly ran to the store 20 minutes away to have her glasses adjusted. Well, we were over halfway done with school and the dog was already here and . . . . so she stayed.
Lily likes our cat Duke but well, Duke isn’t so fond of Lily. In fact, he went into a hysterical hissy fit and had to be locked up for awhile. Poofed up to over twice his normal size (and he’s a big cat). The kids thought that was cool.

And so- here I am checking in. Mr. Conductor’s latest bathroom trip has been cleaned up and he’s napping. The girls are upstairs reading, the dog is gone, bread is baking and I’ve got a bit of time . . . .

I met an interesting homeschooling mom last night...

9:08 PM, 2007-Feb-1 .. Posted by Lynne

My youngest daughter goes to youth bible study on Weds. nights. I was in the library waiting for her to finish, and I met another mom waiting for chorus practice to begin. I found out she is the mother of Michael, a tall, quiet, high school senior. He is a "man of few words", but also an informal leader in youth group. All the younger kids look up to him, and he is a really good role model and goes out of his way to be inclusive of all the kids.
Michael attends a local private Christian high school. His mom told me he was homeschooled until his sophomore year of high school. At that age, he asked to attend a school. He did very well in his transition and gets good grades.
He has two older sisters. One went to public school the entire time, the next sister was only homeschooled until college and has completed two years at the community college, and then there is Michael who did a combination of homeschool and school.
Michael's mom said each kid was different, and she just adapted to each kid and what worked best for them. It sounds like she let them have some choice in what they wanted to do and when. Her oldest daughter has completed college, and is married with a young child.
This is the first time I have met someone with such a variety of schooling options for her children. This mom felt that the education received in homeschool or school were equivalent. Her second daughter who was homeschooled did well in college, as did her daughter who was exclusively public schooled. Michael has done both, and he had no problem transitioning into a formal school setting from homeschool.
I found this all to be interesting, I hope you did too.

Thanks

10:09 AM, 2007-Feb-2 .. Posted by YPAmy5

Lynne- Thanks for sharing. I am taking each year of schooling as it comes and I agree that it all depends on the child. And I know each of my children are different!
Thanks again-
Amy W

Cheerios...

1:21 PM, 2007-Feb-2 .. Posted by 2sonsMom

Add Cheerios - just 1 or 2 and have him "sink" them. At least, that's what I did with my 2 boys. Worked really well. Hope it helps.

Potty training

6:11 PM, 2007-Feb-3 .. Posted by Anonymous

Are you using a little potty or the regular with a seat on? I couldn't tell. When I trained my boys, I had them sit backwards on the regular potty as they were both bigger, 3ish. This gave them more security since they didn't feel like they would fall in holding onto the lid AND they naturally leaned forward which helped aim it in the right direction.

Our Potty

9:05 AM, 2007-Feb-5 .. Posted by YPAmy5

We have a potty seat that pops right on the reg. toilet seat and has handles on the sides to hold onto (course if he holds on like that he doesn't have a free hand to point himself down!).
I still don't care for the seat but he seems to be doing better. He doesn't care for me to "point him down" and would rather do it himself. So I've learned to take his pants and socks off and make sure there isn't anything within a 2 ft radius that I don't want to clean up if it gets soaked!
We're doing pretty good at it now. He hasn't asked for the potty but when I ask him to go for me he usually does. It's a beginning.
Thanks for all the feedback from everyone.
I hadn't thought of the cheerios or putting him on backwards. We may try both!
Thanks!
Amy W