Cleaned and ran errands this morning. Bought some flowers for the front porch that I'm hoping to plant tomorrow, and hosted a crafting circle.
We painted, talked and knitted, and sculpted, too. It was fun and yummy with snacks.
The power went out (someone hit a power poll in our neighborhood) for about an hour, so we ate cold chicken from the fridge and I took the kids to an open gymnastics gym for a couple of hours (and to go somewhere where there was electricity). I went to a coffee shop and ate a gluten filled treat (!!!) and a couple of cups of decaf; read my book, relaxed and listened to some good live fiddle music.
Home now and the kids are having a sleep-over together and watching a video on Robert's player (a special treat only for weekends).
Paul is home now -- no, I'm not going to run out on you, Reader, -- ;) -- and my plan is to keep reading in bed or on the couch. I'm tempted to watch a movie with Paul, but I'm not drawn to anything and I'd really like to get this bookclub book over so I can start reading some of the stacks I've got lying around.
Some of my newest are:
A visiting homeschooler from Austin, TX showed me how to cast on and how to do the knit stitch today. Let me tell you: it was awkward and ugly. (heehee) But I'll keep working on it and maybe someday I will have beautiful projects to gift away like the ones on here and here.
Another unschooling mama asked me today if it was difficult having one child 'schooled' at home and one in a more traditional setting. (Aubrey's in a public charter Montessori school.)
"Yes," is my answer to that. And the truthful answers to that are: I don't like getting up in the morning and getting HER up in the morning to get her ready for school. And neither does she. And the truth is, I want her home with me. I want her to want to be with me. And she does. Right now. But I'm not stupid; in eighteen months she avoid me like a left-over scab in the bathtub.
But Paul, rightly so, says that that feeling (of wanting her home with me) comes out of my pores and I breathe it on her. She knows, he says. And because of that, there is no point in keeping her in a public school, he says. He believes that if she knows I want her home, and she runs into challenges at school that she won't struggle through them and grow, she'll give up and say, "Oh well. I don't have to do/learn/be assertive here. I can just go home."
Well. What's so wrong with that? I ask you. Don't the rest of you do that, too? I do. If I run against something that doesn't do it for me, I find something else that does. Why waste the time and energy?
The real tragedy is that I almost don't feel comfortable, open or free around Aubrey anymore because of it. I feel like Paul expects me to "lie" about my opinions in this matter so that I don't end up unconsciously manipulating or leading her in any particular direction.
And I DO want whatever Aubrey needs and wants. If she prefers public school, Dude -- I'm there. And I would support her in going if that is what she really wants. But I don't think it is.
But what if I don't believe she wants to continue to go to public school because I want her to not want it?
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