The kids did not have school today. Their school districts had a professional day. One of the sitters did come at the regular time, which made my son very, very happy. A. wanted to play school and do math. She says math is her favorite subject and sitting is her favorite subject. She does acknowledge that "Sitting isn't a real subject." This is not a girl to put in the time out corner if a chair is involved, clearly!
In any event, I had been saving blank worksheets that came home (they weren't marked as homework to be returned, so I never asked her to work on them. Family time is sacred. Downtime is sacred.) on the off chance she ever asked to do math (I know this sounds insane to you, but she shares some qualities with my younger self and I LOVED math worksheets). After playing Splash Math on the iPad for a while, she asked for a worksheet, "a clean one, not one that has writing on it", so I got them out and she went to work. She did one and part of another. She is _so much of a perfectionist_ compared to what I was like at that age. I've always been way more about volume than exacting quality. But that's just fine; she enjoyed herself and I reread a couple Georgette Heyer novels.
T. asked me why there was construction going on. I went outside with him and sure enough, there was a police officer managing traffic and a big vehicle in the street. I went up and asked a person who was not at that moment involved in doing something dangerously complex and who wasn't managing traffic, and he explained that they were purging the sewer line. The whole system is on a four year cycle.
The kids and I went down to Julie's Place for lunch. A. was going to not order something and have lunch at home, but once there, she had her usual grilled cheese and chips. T. rode his bike and A. attempted to ride hers, but between the bike being a little small and a lot slow, and her anxiety associated with "hills" (the little slope down for a driveway frightens her) resulted in me calling a halt halfway there, leaving the kids to watch the bag, and running her bike and my scooter home. I jogged back to where I could see them then walked the rest of the way back to them. They waited patiently the whole time (wasn't long -- total distance to Julie's is a quarter mile, most of it line of sight).
It was surprisingly non-stressful having them both home for the day. I sure wouldn't want to do this all the time, but it is nice now that they are both verbal, able to take turns, and generally better at conflict resolution.
Also, after coming home from the babysitter, T. asked to download PvZ2, because A. has been playing it. I live in a world in which the 10 year old boy adopts games based on the 7 year old girl deciding to play them. *sigh* I'm sort of sad about this latest development, because I've really enjoyed playing Farmville 2: Country Escape, the previous choice.
In any event, I had been saving blank worksheets that came home (they weren't marked as homework to be returned, so I never asked her to work on them. Family time is sacred. Downtime is sacred.) on the off chance she ever asked to do math (I know this sounds insane to you, but she shares some qualities with my younger self and I LOVED math worksheets). After playing Splash Math on the iPad for a while, she asked for a worksheet, "a clean one, not one that has writing on it", so I got them out and she went to work. She did one and part of another. She is _so much of a perfectionist_ compared to what I was like at that age. I've always been way more about volume than exacting quality. But that's just fine; she enjoyed herself and I reread a couple Georgette Heyer novels.
T. asked me why there was construction going on. I went outside with him and sure enough, there was a police officer managing traffic and a big vehicle in the street. I went up and asked a person who was not at that moment involved in doing something dangerously complex and who wasn't managing traffic, and he explained that they were purging the sewer line. The whole system is on a four year cycle.
The kids and I went down to Julie's Place for lunch. A. was going to not order something and have lunch at home, but once there, she had her usual grilled cheese and chips. T. rode his bike and A. attempted to ride hers, but between the bike being a little small and a lot slow, and her anxiety associated with "hills" (the little slope down for a driveway frightens her) resulted in me calling a halt halfway there, leaving the kids to watch the bag, and running her bike and my scooter home. I jogged back to where I could see them then walked the rest of the way back to them. They waited patiently the whole time (wasn't long -- total distance to Julie's is a quarter mile, most of it line of sight).
It was surprisingly non-stressful having them both home for the day. I sure wouldn't want to do this all the time, but it is nice now that they are both verbal, able to take turns, and generally better at conflict resolution.
Also, after coming home from the babysitter, T. asked to download PvZ2, because A. has been playing it. I live in a world in which the 10 year old boy adopts games based on the 7 year old girl deciding to play them. *sigh* I'm sort of sad about this latest development, because I've really enjoyed playing Farmville 2: Country Escape, the previous choice.