Happy First Full Day of Spring!!

Yes, it is officially the first full day of spring on the calendar, but apparently mother nature hasn't gotten the memo because right now it is snowing outside, and freezing. To be perfectly honest, I have to say I don't much mind the snow today. You see, as much as I love the idea of being outside in warmer weather, pushing the kids on the swings and running around the yard with the dog, I am so freaking exhausted right now what I really need is a good excuse to let the boys watch 3 episodes of Curious George while I drink a couple cups of afternoon coffee. Why am I so exhausted? Well...


I am very happy report that Hammie is now officially potty trained! Yes, that's right, no more diapers for Hammie. He has been out of diapers during the day for a few weeks, but this weekend we finally caved to his repeated requests to wear underwear at night too, so now it is officially official. I only have one child still in diapers! However, there is a downside to Hammie wearing underwear at night. Since he is so very excited to be wearing underwear he seems to want to make extra sure that he doesn't have an accident at night. Isn't that a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, it's good that he isn't having accidents in bed. But last night he got up twice, once at 11:30, when he came in, woke me up and told me he needed help getting on the potty, and then again at at 11:55, when he came in and woke me up to let me know he needed to use the potty (the first time he did, the second time he didn't). This doesn't sound so bad except that I had already been up with Eleanor at 10:00 because she wanted water and was then up with Fraser at 12:45 because he kicked all the covers off this bed and wanted me to tuck him back in. Individually none of these events seems so awful, but cumulatively they were really aggravating. So at 1:00 a.m. I found myself lying in bed, wide awake, very aggravated, wondering if I will EVER sleep through the night again.


To make matter worse, my choice of reading material lately has given me a whole circular train of thought to travel and re-travel-and re-travel again on these nights that I am lying awake in bed.


I have been reading "The Read Aloud Handbook", which I have really been enjoying. The book talks at length (as might be suggested by the title) about how important it is to read aloud to children of all ages. One of the author's main points is that when children are forced to learn to read too early, when phonics and worksheets and word drills are what they think of when they think of "reading," then they never develop a true love of books, and it is only through an honest love of reading that you can fully develop your mind and deepen your appreciation of literature. So I think, this is great! We read books and enjoy them, no stress. And this philosophy goes along with the school program I have them in next year which does no formal "academics" in preschool but lots of playing and reading and exploring.


But then I'm also reading "The Well Trained Mind" and I've also read "Raising Cain" which both stress how detrimental it can be, both academically and emotionally if students (especially boys) are "behind" in their reading skills when they enter kindergarten. So now I am surfing homeschooling Internet sites, wondering what I should be doing to supplement the "school" experience next year.


So now we are reading aloud as much as we can (keeping in mind the constant stream of advice from various experts that boys need to move continually throughout the day, and cannot be expected and certainly not required to sit still for any period of time) and trying to make a little bit of phonics fun, so they won't be too far behind their pears in reading but I also won't squash their love of reading like a little bug.


Meanwhile I am reading "The Gift of an Ordinary Day" in which a mother of two boys looks back on her decision to raise them by slowing down, not over scheduling them, taking time to enjoy the day to day. I also just ordered "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" for my Kindle, in which a mother discusses her approach to raising her daughters to be straight A students and excellent musicians (though I admit I plan on reading this one just for entertainment, not parenting advice, and have no intention of forcing any of my children to practice anything for 3-6 hours a day).


So from 1:00 a.m. until sometime just after 2:30 I thought about reading, learning to read, social skills, emotional IQs, swimming lessons, music lessons, soccer camps, lacrosse teams, homeschooling, private schools, public colleges, and hunting for worms until I fell into a tense and unsatisfying sleep in which I dreamed about being lost in a subway system, trying to get one of my kids somewhere, but I couldn't remember what class we were going to (art? karate? animal husbandry?) but also realizing that I had misplaced one of my other children in the subway, and trying to find them while I tried to remember where it was we were headed in the first place.


Ultimately, I think both my conscious and unconscious mind can agree, if you aren't really sure where you are headed, it is damn hard to tell if you are getting any closer to your destination. I wish there were someone to stop and ask directions from, other than authors in books, who simply stand on opposite sides of the street and scream completely contradictory information at you (though they might all agree that in the future I should consider reading just one book at a time). So today I don't mind that it is snowing on the first day of spring, because at least I know we are headed in the right direction for green grass and warmer Mondays, even if the destination is still a long way off.