Joni's Page

He has a few chores to do that he is happy to (make his bed- he chose these chores; I don't care if his bed is made or not :-), takes out the recycling, empties the bathroom wastebaskets, feeds Bob the cat). Then my hubby comes home around 5 and we eat dinner and then just all hang out in the family room watching t.v. or Quest is on the computer again, OR he's wrestling around in the family room with his 19 year old brother IF he's home. :-) Quest does have a bedtime. It's 9 or 9:30. I have to have uninterrupted time to get work done, so I work each night from the time he goes to bed until 11:30pm-12:00am. That's about it. The "gist" of it, anyway. I have really let go in the past 4 weeks, especially, of thinking/feeling like he MUST be learning at all times (of course, he really is, but I'm still getting used to realizing that). Having already raised 2 kids, I am looking at things differently (in a good way) but it's also hard to break those things I was taught as a teacher as well as the parent of young children back when my older boys were young... :-)

We call that "oobleck" (corn starch and water). There is a Dr. Seuss book that goes great with it! :-) It's a long book though, but it's neat. :-) Well, a day in the life of Joni? That's funny because I wonder what everyone else does, thinking I'm doing NOTHING. :-) I have my son signed up in a "Parent Partnership Program" but I am quickly realizing it's too "school" for me. I posted a "rant" called "I just need to vent" (I think that's what it's called) so you can read that to get an idea of my frustrations.
Our typical day is getting up around 8 or so (just whenever we wake up). Quest always gets on the computer then. He likes to play Wizard 101 and Free Realms. It takes me an hour or so to wake up so I drink my coffee and check my e-mails while I watch t.v. Usually Regis and Kelly or something I've DVR'd the night before. When Quest is ready to get off the computer, which is usually 10:30 or so, I do have him practice his multiplication facts- either by me verbally quizzing him or him doing it on the computer, interactively. He likes to do "math squares" so I print those out and he'll do a page or two. That's about the extent of anything "required" although that has just been happening the past 2 months (before that it was more structured and I was basically trying to do "school at home" which didn't work). He kept asking WHY it was all necessary and I didn't have a good answer for him. Darn kids are so smart. :-) I teach college classes online, so I work either when he's doing his math or after. I usually work until 12:30 or 1:00 and then we go outside to play or run errands; just basically get out of the house for 30 min to an hour. Then, we come back and he's back on the computer or building something with Legos. I clean the house a little and then work (this is just the "gist" of it) until about 3:30 or 4. Con't above....