I can't seem to find time to write about this stuff, lately. We've had a lot going on. We haven't been doing structured lessons for a while, now. That makes our progress even harder to blog about.
It's strange to see friends of mine (who are also parents) touting what their kids did at school and not really having any comparable material to judge my kids' progress. I miss the hard evidence. On the other hand, we spend a lot of time working on intangible things. I can tell you that S's speech therapy is going quite well, C is softening her rough edges about being bossy, and M is slowly working on the "LMNOP" problem, and vastly improving her verbal clarity.
S - The oldest twin has some follow-through trouble. She doesn't want to sit down on the couch to read, or at the table to draw or write. But she will sit on the floor and build marble tracks or play with blocks for an hour. She's also very emotionally fragile.I'm concerned that she is becoming like I was in elementary school: Terrified of all scenarios in which failure seems possible or likely. I'm working hard on my positive reinforcement with her and trying not to encourage panicking and crying about every mistake. I'm also stepping up and defending her against her bossier twin, more in an attempt to teach C not to treat her sisters that way than to protect S.
C - The younger twin loves to draw. She started out trying to draw copies of things she saw, so I bought her her some simple "how to draw" books. Only a few weeks later, she's now drawing people with personalizing details and other things, like fire trucks, from memory. She has constant, unregulated access to paper and pencils, and gets crayons basically whenever she asks for them (we can't just leave them out because one of our dogs has a crayon eating habit). C's bossiness seems to decrease in frequency every time I catch her shouting at the others. Sometimes I wish I could find a bossier kid for her to hang out with so she could see how it feels.
M - With the three-year-old, we're working through a mess of attitude. She went from being manipulative to just plain disrespectful, recently. But she's hitting an immovable wall on that path, too. It feels weird to tell my youngest daughter, "We make your food and buy your clothes and make sure you have a place to live and toys to play with. You will, at the very least, be respectful to us." And maybe it's overkill, but I think it's important for her to understand the weight of our role in her life (to what small degree she is able at this age) and WHY she needs to respect us. I don't believe in the blanket statement of, "respect your elders!" I just want to raise kids who respect people who deserve it, and most of the people they know definitely do.
In general, we've been doing a lot of household work together. They help me clean when I'm doing dishes, laundry, or vacuuming and they help me with some of my baking projects. I do my best to use these things as opportunities to teach them life skills, math, reading, and other skills. C (five-years-old) feels like she's ready to learn to cut vegetables. I'm waiting for a day when I'm not already busy and stressed. That might have to happen on a weekend, when both adults can be there.
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