Tim is now officially back in school...another stressful week in the world of teaching. Let me start this update with a prayer request: Tim's school needs probably less than 10 more 6th graders. Right now, while Tim is still teaching science, he (and every 6th grade teacher) has to teach one section of reading. With about 10 more students, the county would have to hire one more teacher so that the classes would not be overcrowded. That teacher would take all of the reading classes leaving Tim teaching only science---stress level goes down about 6 notches.
Colton is amazing me with what he is learning in 1st grade. So far, I love all of the books I chose for us to study. Every once in a while, I think it is going to pile up on him, but he is the proverbial sponge that generally describes this age. He just soaks it all up. Now don't get me wrong. We are not the Homeschoolers Poster Family. He does really well academically, but we're still working on staying on task and not being so easily distracted. I'm working on not getting so frustrated that I think I'm going to burst a vein or something. He is enjoying his first spelling book, and he has already memorized a poem in grammar. He wasn't supposed to even try to recite if for about another week, but we've read it several times, and he wanted to try today. He didn't miss a word. We have a scavenger hunt tomorrow in science that he is really looking forward to doing. If we can't find all of the items here, we will have another excuse to go to Memaw's for the afternoon.
Eli has been working on a project of his own this week...potty training. When he turned 3 (back in February), we put him in Pull-ups. In a couple of days, he had the hang of No. 1. He would come and tell us whenever he needed to go. No. 2 was a whole 'nother issue. Then he was sick with a cold for a few days and quit. A few weeks went by, he caught on again, and then he quit again. We tried rewards, stars, lectures, guilt trips, and punishments of various kinds. He didn't care about any of it. The only information we could get from him was that using the potty was "boring". I wasn't about to entertain him with a song and dance routine every time he had to go. I even tried just putting him in underwear so that he would find accidents unpleasant. Not unpleasant enough. Maybe it was because I put those vinyl covers over the underwear because I didn't want to be cleaning up the carpet. At one point, I declared I was through trying to train him--He could just stay in pull-ups and let his future wife deal with him! It's not like I have to get him ready for public school! Well, Monday I decided to try one more tactic. When I took his pajamas off, I put him in a shirt and underwear (no cover). I took the bath mat out of the bathroom, gave him a towel to sit on, gave him a couple of coloring books and toys, and told him that he was not to leave the bathroom. He had on real big-boy underwear, and if he needed to go he could either let it run down his leg, get on the potty, or call me to help him get on the potty. I then moved Colton's little school table to just outside the bathroom, and we had school there. Eli was very agreeable about staying in there. He did perfectly all day, but had no No. 2. The second day we conquered that and began leaving the bathroom more. (He was also promised a trip to Memaw's if he ever did No. 2.) Today I let him wear shorts over his underwear and kept asking him every few minutes if he needed to go. Every so often I would just take him if he hadn't been in a while. So, 3 days in underwear with no accidents...and he even went to church tonight without switching back to pull-ups. I hope I haven't jinxed myself by telling this, but he has done so well. The funniest thing was when Memaw called Granny Clayton so he could tell her how big he is now. When he got off the phone, he came to me and asked, "Am I 4 now or 5." I told him no, and he said sadly, "I'm still 3?" I said yes but that it was now a BIG boy 3. That made it all better. We then thought to tell him he was now 3 and a half. (He will be this week.)
Nothing new on the adoption. I started working on paperwork today, and it really does begin to overwhelm quickly. I'm going to have to make little bite-sized piles for Tim. If I pace him, maybe it won't be too stressing to do in addition to all of his school work.
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