We took a quick trip to Nana's house over Labor Day. Sometimes the quick trips are the best because we leave so fast there is no time to agonize over what to do to get ready! Taft packed his suit case. In the small front pocket were all the clothes he needed for a night and a day. In the big pocket he had all necessary comfort items including Toothless Huggels Archibald.
We did lots of different things, as usual. We went on a walk and we saw these little minnows in a drainage ditch that were so anxious to come nibble on our hands that they would swarm our hands by the hundreds!
The kids all got a blob of dough and made cinnamon rolls with Nana. Even Kent participated and his cinnamon rolls were finished before he could eat the entire dough ball.
We had a fun holiday on Monday, mostly swimming and having a BBQ. We also stayed for the BYU football game kickoff. It was a good kickoff to stay for because we scored two touchdowns in the first 5 minutes! Taft was particularly excited by all the excitement!
Joel has hopped aboard the potty train. We've slowly started to encourage him to use the toilet and now he's to the point that he can keep underwear dry almost all day long. It's been about 2 weeks. Last night Taft said he needed to go to the bathroom, then Joel said he had pee. We told him Taft was going and he said, "Ok, I wet my pants." And when he got up to go pee, he had wet his pants. I'm not sure if he did it before or after announcing it, but it was mostly humorous. Joel's main motivation is the the gummies he gets. We've had all assortments. Taft also benefits too, when he can. For awhile Taft had his own Lifesaver Gummies that Joel liked and Taft wanted Joel's gummies, so they would do a gummy trade each time Joel used the toilet.
Potty training Taft and Joel over the last couple years has taught me a few things and has provided a pattern for my parenting.
I may have mentioned this before, but our family motto is "Small and Simple" and you may say it's mostly my motto. It has been a good reminder to help me that all this learning and growth happens a little bit at a time. Big results rarely occur instantaneously. This brings me to my potty training life analogy.
You may or may not remember that potty training Alyssa was just short of disastrous. It took a really long time to get her to pee and poop on the potty. We used a lot of pull ups and bribes and what not and I was a constant stress case. I did not want to give up though. I was so worried that if I went back on what we had started, that I would mess it up and she would think you could just quit the hard things. Potty training Taft was significantly easier. His personality is different, we waited until he was older, etc. etc. But I also think we knew better how to celebrate the small successes and I was more ok with recognizing that some days are diaper days, so put the diaper back on and relax! I think Joel will be much the same. Through small, consistent efforts, he will potty train. Consistently going in the morning, after quiet time, and before leaving the house will eventually turn into total bladder control, which will lead to bowel control which will lead to potty trained Joel. So now, my analogy for life, and particularly homeschool.
I feel much of the same stress with Alyssa with homeschooling that I felt with potty training. I want to stick to my guns, get those math problems done, and do all that stuff you need to do to become educated. I want to be a teacher with a lesson plan that makes progress, has deadlines, and teaches at the whiteboard for an hour a day. But learning doesn't really happen like that at home. Success comes in very small ways. Success comes by starting simple, but being consistent. We didn't do 8 pages in the math workbook this week, but we did read a chapter of Sign of the Beaver every day and Alyssa worked on her times tables, which are actually fundamental to the workbook learning. Our writing exercises were a little bit ill produced, but we talked about character comparisons between different books we've read. Taft is anxiously wanting to do letter lessons; Alyssa finished the Little House series and is plowing through the Clementine books we've had on the shelf for 4 years. Success isn't always how we imagine it, but progress can happen, little by little and consistently. In the meantime I'm over here trying to be more silly than critical and take silent note of areas we can improve on in the future but don't need to be blatantly corrected right now. Wish me luck in holding my tongue!
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