I have to record this day in order to have something positive to look back on if ever I feel discouraged in parenting as well as homeschooling.
We've developed a new morning routine that seems to work for our little family.
Urijah gets up, goes to the bathroom, brushes his teeth, sets himself up on the desk and starts painting. Normally I watch him get on with his work while nursing Zuri. But this morning was a little different. He suddenly announced "mommy I'm going to show her how to paint". And so he did.
I really like this new routine. It gives me time to ease into the day. And it helps me to center myself by paying more attention to the beauty in our lives. I've found that gratitude can be a game changer in parenting. Especially now that dear husband has been away for over a month. He's absence has me focusing on being a more present mom. With that said, I can't wait to have my husband back again so that we can enjoy these moments together!
After the painting session we headed downstairs for breakfast. We usually have a homemade smoothie but this morning Urijah requested pancakes. And I gladly obliged as I now use an organic vegan pancakes mix from the local health store. Nope not vegan but I definitely appreciate the health content of certain vegan foods. To our mix we added a mashed banana for sweetness and an organic strawberry jam as a topping. The kids love this mix and I just make sure to first give them fruit and water before serving the pancakes (Zuri had 2 peaches and Urijah chose a large plum). I don't know why that detail matters but we'll just roll with it.
After breakfast we moved our party of 3 outside for my 30mins workout session. I now use toddler music to keep the little ones happy. They love to dance and sometimes they join me in some of the workouts. Today Urijah chose to occupy himself by creating a store and a farm. He told me that he needed seeds, water and sunshine. And once he was done planting his vegetables, he went on to create a store to sell his produce. Note that the seeds were grains of black rice that he found in the kitchen. Zuri on the other hand was a little fussy due to waking up earlier than planned. So I nursed her mid workout and placed her upstairs for a nap (which lasted 3 whole hours! What a good life she has!).
Once returning I quickly finished working out and joined Urijah in his play. He gave me some sticks letting me know that they were to be used to purchase products from his shop. The sticks amounted to $10. When inquiring the cost of a tomato, he told me that it was $4. Pretty hefty if you ask me but then again this was the only store in our backyard so I had no other choice but to pay up. We did the maths (as in this was our homeschool maths lesson ***in the US they say Math while in SA it's Maths). Once I requested to buy more tomatoes I was given a stern No! And our conversation was as follows:
Urijah: Mommy, you can't buy everything in my store, then I'll have nothing for tomorrow.
Me: But the point of a store is to sell everything so that you can make a profit.
Urijah: I don't have a prophet. Jesus has a prophet ok!
Me: No I'm talking about a different kind of profit P R O F I T. Not P R O P H E T. The one is about making money from your business and the other one is like Adam (as in Adam and Eve) or President Thomas S Monson.
Urijah: Oh. Well you can't buy any more of my stuff mommy. Go to the farmer's market. It's that way. (said while pointing toward the make believe farm)
And so I left for the farmer's market.
Once we were done playing, we headed out into the garden to pick a snack (tomatoes and strawberries). Both incredibly delicious! But before digging into our snack Urijah was determined to fight a fire like a real firefighter and so I obliged by delivering water in a watering can and brought along his fireman chief hat. It's so cute to see how invested he was in saving people from the imaginary danger.
When we finally sat down to enjoy the sun, a praying mantis dropped by for a visit. And that opened up an opportunity to do some studying on insects. Among other things, we now know that a praying mantis has a powerful jaw and bites its prey in the neck. The things that fascinate little Urijah...
After a little downtime I made lunch and we sat on the porch feasting on Urijah's favorite Dr Suess books. While on the porch I attempted to explain to him why picking his nose was a gross habit. He didn't believe me on the part of spreading germs so we watched a 5mins YouTube kid science show about how boogers are formed. I know this sounds pretty yucky but it was necessary. He loved video, we watched it a few times, stopping for questions and relating the content in a way that's relevant to him. I wish I could say the habit is gone...unfortunately I'm still dealing with a nose picking toddler.
A little while later Zuri woke up and we headed out to the park. But before moving on with the day, I must mention how kids are so keen to learn. Even though I'm not actively schooling Zuri at this point, she is imitating what she's observing. A few days ago I was in the kitchen and the was silence in the lounge. Now if you have kids then you know that silence could mean trouble. So I ran out to see what she was up to, only to find my sweet girl curled up on the big recliner with a book. She sees me almost every evening relaxing with a book, curled up in the exact same way. And this morning I captured that very same moment with her and her big brother.
...back to the run down of the day...
It ended with bathtime and while bathing Zuri, Urijah busied himself learning about the alligators and crocodiles from his new library books.
***Note: he can't read yet so when reading new books he mostly looks at the pictures, tells me about what he's seeing (eg: Mommy this is a mommy alligator and she's sitting on her eggs so that they can hatch. See! There's the baby alligator). And after chatting about the picture he normally asks me to read the writing. And with books that we've read several times, he'll "read" them to himself from memory.
And after reading a Curious George book and scripture, it was time for prayer and bed.
Today was a very good day. And I'm excited to continue exploring our homeschooling adventure!
No comments
Post a Comment