Mama has learned that if I’m going to actually engage BigGuy in critical thinking skills, I’m going to have to pre-read the teacher portion of the content in our curricula… which prepares me perfectly for exactly what I’m trying to accomplish.

Mama has learned that Girly needs some dedicated one-on-one time.

Mama has learned that BigGuy really wants to do all this work, he just wants to be ENGAGED with it instead of “just reading it”–which is what Mama defaulted back to despite BigGuy laying that out pretty clearly for me.

Mama has learned that her children really NEED the character education stories–and that it’s worth finishing out the stories even if we span beyond a week.  Because they totally need that.

Mama has learned that morning snuggles NEED to happen.  My kids (but especially BigGuy) is really affected by this.  I can only liken it to the chemical changes in a mother’s body when they tell her to spend 24 hours in bed with her newborn to increase milk production for nursing.  Somehow, BigGuy needs this time in the morning.  Girly, too; but BigGuy seems to be really thrown off by a busy day without this.  Of course, Mama is trying not to wonder how old he will be when the need is gone and silently reassures herself that it will LIKELY be before he’s 18.  She used this same mantra when wondering when he would stop nursing (which he did 2 weeks before his 5th birthday… and no–I’m totally NOT that kind of saint).

Mama has learned that she needs to keep to her scheduled working hours so that she doesn’t constantly try to grab time (and attention) away from her kids… and then get really grumpy with her kids when they try to (rightfully) get her attention.

And to that end, Mama needs to go back to keeping a list of things she needs to do when 1) she has business hours; and 2) she has internet time.  That method of list-keeping really worked well for me.

Mama learned that dairy is her enemy… again.

It’s been a full week.  See you next week–same bat time, same bat station…