Almost Four

Me:  Sometimes being a mommy is just really hard.  Do you have any advice for me?
Maryn:  Hmm...nuh-uh.  Not yet.

I was falling asleep forehead to forehead next to my sweet child last night.  She nodded off before I did, but I kept talking to her.  "I love you, sweet girl.  I hope you know that.  I hope you know, even though I don't act like it all the time.  Or even most of the time."

Yesterday, Josiah was being so bad.  I had told them both we could have ice cream after dinner but it was very obvious that wasn't going to happen.  So Josiah went to bed and Maryn was in her bed.  She was being very obedient.  I know she remembers everything, so I know she knew she got jipped out of ice cream because of her brother's behavior.  So I brought her a bowl of cake and ice cream with sprinkles to eat in her bed as we read two books of her choice.  I reminded her this is not something we could do every night.  "Just tonight."  She said.  "Because tonight is special."

Maryn has been playing games and figuring out other things that shows us she is reading.  She really can read.  I tell her this.  She says, "No I can't!"  Haha!  I don't know if there's much I can do about that right now, but I've decided I'm not going to push her in this matter.  For school this year, I've decided to do a few things.

1.)  Watch less television.  Our screen free week showed me that a ton of learning takes place naturally if the television is OFF and the kids know it is OFF, that it's not even an option.

2.)  Play more.  Playing outside with our bigger kid friends and littler kid friends is such a fantastic opportunity.  They learn how to play with and take care of younger children and they learn new, interesting things from the bigger kids.  Living here around so many homeschooled children has opened my eyes to the great privileges of homeschooling.  One of the things I love the most is the multi-age factor and learning how to be a leader but also be a team member, an assistant, etc.  We have two more years to PLAY and not worry about school.  So one of my goals is to chill out and play, play, play.

3.)  Read more.  I found that when the television was off, we sure did read a lot.  Story times at the library help encourage us to get into books more often and give us some themes to spring forward from.  Last week, story time was about "getting ready for bed time," so I got out all our books about that type of thing (we own about 10 of them, ha!), put them with our "coffee table books," and spent the week reading them again and again.

Right now, our favorite books are Bedtime for Frances, these alphabet books that are fantastic and Maryn LOVES them, and of course Corduroy, Clifford, and Tickle Monster, which are always favorites.

And that's what's going on with Maryn.  Maryn, who is almost four.