Six Thoughts from The School for Wiggly Boys

Sometimes school looks like this. Thankfully, all of the boys love books. They don’t always love the same books that I want them to love, but they do love books.

By the end of the homeschool day, I have this NEED to zone out. Does herding children all day make you feel as beat as it does me??? Blogging is my version of zoning out, so let me tell ya what’s been going on lately in our School for Wiggly Boys.

-Things are going well. Caleb is making a speedy recovery. Yesterday, you could see his lip shrinking all day long. It was quite the wonder. Today he looks downright adorable, a bouncy little boy with a smile full of chipped teeth! 🙂 Bless him. (For that story read: this.)

Caleb keeps starting out to the trampoline, only to remember, “Oh, yeah, I’m not allowed to jump,” and come walking back in with his shoulders slumped in disappointment. The problem is that his entire plate of top front teeth is loose, so until we get a lid on this situation, Caleb is not permitted to do much in the way of fun. :/

Actually, I just heard Daniel enter Caleb’s room, and Caleb told him, “I’m trying to play with my Legos SILENTLY.” lol  Ironic, coming from Caleb. It sounds like Daniel has him convinced to let him play too.

-Last night at dinner, we were all practicing our presidents song. We are learning the names of the U.S. presidents, in order, this semester. This is something we’ve just started. I can almost sing them all now. Having a good song makes ALL the difference in memorizing.

Alan hasn’t listened to the song as much as we have, so he doesn’t really know the tune. It gave me the greatest joy to watch Alan trying to figure out who came after Theodore Roosevelt, and hear Caleb chime in for him, “Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge.”
I was SO EXCITED. We haven’t even gone over that part yet. He’s just soaked it in from listening to the song!

So here’s a link to a slightly different presidents song than the one we use, for those who also want to teach this to their kiddos:

–Let’s talk about food for a minute. Like most parents, we live for compliments about our children. Parenting is such a challenge, and we need all the back pats we can get. Over Christmas, my mom commented on how amazing the boys’ diets are. “What did you do to get them eating so healthy?” she asked.

Well, first of all, THANK YOU, Mom!!  Thank you so much! I didn’t even notice they were eating healthy.

It is kind of hilarious. You can bake them cookies, and they often won’t even eat them. They are terribly picky about their sweets. Don’t waste your time with anything called “casserole” either.

Joshua’s typical “dessert” consists of chicken and sweet peas.

“Can I just have a big bowl of sweet peas!??” he often asks.

Ironically enough, Caleb can’t even have sweet peas. He’s terribly allergic. They make his throat swell, and then the bathroom part begins. It’s terrible.

It’s such a relief that peas are not like peanuts. Nothing is. We can have all the peas we want in the house. They are not an airborne allergen. Unfortunately, that is not the case with NUTS. Don’t even get me started on that one.

As long as you have plain fruits, vegetables, and meats around, yes, my kids will be very happy. They do eat healthy!

The dentist was going over food options with Caleb, for his week of broken teeth. Caleb asked, “Can I still eat green beans?” The dentist looked very surprised.

“Uh, well….they are crunchy. Make sure you steam them real good first. It will take out some nutrients, but ….”

hahaha  Alan didn’t bother telling our wonderful California dentist that our green beans come from a can and don’t have a whole lot of nutrients left anyway. 😛

— The other night, Alan and I were settling down to sleep. I confessed that I’d been drinking like 3 cups of coffee per day. Alan said, “Yeah, I’ve noticed that. That can’t be healthy.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Eh, I don’t know,” he replied.

hehehe Nah, we’re not so sure.  The third kid started my coffee drinking habit, and home schooling has taken it to a whole other level!!!

—My idea of ‘fun’ has also changed. Last night Caleb, Daniel, and I spent a good half hour laminating science centers and a multiplication game, and it was such a blast. Every teacher needs a laminator!!

You can find awesome file folder multiplication games at this site:

—-My New Year’s goals aren’t going so well this year. I HAVE been studying Jesus, but I can’t remember what the other goals were….I hope it wasn’t “Wear real clothes every day,” because I have definitely failed at that. Today, I was reading this really cute book called Marvin Redpost Class President, to the big boys, when Caleb looked at me and said, “Mom, your pants are on inside out.”

“Oh. Yeah. I noticed that,” I told him.

Have I fixed that yet? Nope. Don’t worry. I’ll change pants before I go to AWANA tonight. hehehe