The Little Glimpses….

Sometimes as a parent, I feel like all I do is remind, reinforce, and occasionally nag. 

Pick this up.  Don’t forget this.  Put your glass in the sink.  Is that where your shoes go?  Did you forget to hang up your towel again? 

Sometimes I wonder if it ever sticks. 

And then a day like today happens.

I woke up with a massive tension headache. Instead of enjoying the day with friends, I spent most of the day snuggling with Cade on the couch. Thankfully I was able to sleep for a good part of the day and get in lots of Cade-snuggles!!

Kory was quite disappointed that our day’s plans changed.  He was mad. He pouted. He actually changed into his blue shirt – the matching shirt color of choice for our activity – and a pair of shorts. He marched himself down to the living room and sat down. He even made sure I noticed that his shoes were on since he was ready to go.  I told him it was okay to be mad but that we also rescheduled our plans for later in the week.

Shortly after that, he said, “so can I get changed back into my pajamas?”

And that’s when I saw the glimpse that it sticks.  All the hard work of reminding.  All the times I feel like I am repeating and nagging.

After he changed into his pjs, he brought down his overflowing basket of dirty clothes and put them in the laundry area.

He walked over to me with a bucket – “just in case you get sick, mommy.”

He brought me a Sprite – even though it was a half-empty bottle that he had been drinking from over the past few days.

He asked, “Is there anything else you need?”

I made sure to tell him thank you after I told him I was fine.

And then he played quietly – or as quietly as Kory can play with his superhero sound effects. 🙂

At one point, I woke up from a little nap, and I heard him in the kitchen.  I looked at the clock, and it was 11:30.  Never once did he ask me for lunch.  Never once did I hear him complain about being hungry.  Instead, he had pulled up a chair to the cabinet to get out the peanut butter and nutella.  And he made his own lunch – I think he claimed he had three pieces of bread with peanut butter and nutella.  Don’t worry I ended up making Cade and myself something simple.

My headache ended up breaking in the afternoon, and that wonderful headache fog was gone around dinnertime.  Kory ended up playing with a friend for most of the evening.  While we were going through his bedtime routine tonight, I, again, thanked him for his help today. 

“I just tried to take care of you like you take care of me when I am sick.”

It does stick. All the reminding. All the repeating.  All the times I feel like I am nagging. And all the times I don’t say anything but just take care of him.  The little glimpses make it worth it all!

and someday his future wife can tell me thank you!  🙂

First Grade Summary (finally!)

I have finally packed and shipped Kory’s remaining first grade materials as well as filed and crated things to keep from his school year.  And now I am finally getting around to blogging about Kory’s first grade year even though we haven’t done any official school work for a month now!

Here are some of my favorite memories from Kory’s first grade: 

History:  As we were learning about Abraham and Sarah, Kory decided to ask,  “So who is God’s wife?”

History:  “Kory what are some special things they discovered in King Tut’s tomb.”  Kory’s response:  “Video Games.”

History:  “Kory, what is a nomad.”  Kory’s response: “It is a person who is not mad”.

By the way, I loved Kory’s history curriculum this year as we learned about early civilizations.  Kory kept a history notebook throughout the year. After each lesson, he would draw a picture and try to caption it to reflect what he remembered from the lesson.  Some of his entries were quite comical in what stuck out to him in the lesson. It was neat to review this notebook at the end of the school year to see his progress in drawing, writing, and remembering.

Language Arts:  After reading the book Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to Kory, I asked him how Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle could make his least favorite chore (cleaning his room) fun. His response, “She can’t. She’s not real. She’s imaginary.”  This by the way was one of his favorite books through the year.

History: “Kory, who fought in the Trojan Wars?”  Kory’s response: “The golden apples and the good guys and the bad guys.” (The golden apple was part of the Trojan Wars, by the way).

Science:  “Kory, what measures temperature?”  His response: “A meat eater. Oops, I forgot to take off my dinosaur brain.”

Science:  “I don’t want to be a scientist. The waiting /observing part is boring” as he had to observe and document melting Popsicles for 30 minutes in 10-minute increments.

Writing: “Kory, please write the sentence ‘I fell in the well’.”  Kory’s response: “How deep was the well mommy?”

At the end of the school year, I asked Kory about his favorite memories from first grade.  He immediately had two answers.

The first was when I read him the book The Chocolate Touch.  This is a great book a friend recommended we read when she found out we were learning about King Midas and the Golden Touch!

His other answer was learning about clouds.  Even now while we drive around, the boys will look at the clouds, and I hear them say to each other – I think those are cotton candy clouds – also known as Cirrus clouds.  

My favorite memory of first grade was seeing Kory work so hard on reading. He achieved so much in his reading levels, and I’m so proud of his hard work. I also loved watching him turn his words into writing. This one was my favorite, and, sadly, I had to send it in for a portfolio piece – but I made a copy.

This year we also added a new element into our homeschooling world. We joined a local Christian-based homeschool co-op that meets 8 weeks in the fall and 8 weeks in the spring.  I had fun teaching Kory’s class about Dr. Seuss in the fall and about habitats in the spring, but the best part for me was watching Kory and Cade blossom with some new friendships across all ages. 

That reminds me of one other memory I have from the past year.  Each co-op session starts with the kids reciting the pledges for the American flag, the Christian flag and the Bible. 

I wasn’t completely sure it was sticking with Kory at first. And in his own way it was. We were driving one night and Kory started saying the pledge to the Christian flag, threw in a few lines of the pledge to the Bible and finished it with lines from the pledge to the American flag. It was all intertwined. He finished by saying, “mommy, did I say it right?”  All I could do was smile and say, “It’s close enough Kory.” 

Kory will continue with his online school in the fall, and I’m working on setting up some preschool stuff for Cade since he loves to sit and learn with Kory too.  But for now, we are just going to enjoy the rest of the summer and not officially think about school until our second grade materials start to arrive sometime in August!