I must be living right

Education does not come without sacrifice.

People at school will say to me "Don't your kids get underfoot? Don't they bug you when you try to study?"

And I can honestly say, No, they don't. Because Addie and Jake are glued to the computer (on line or video game hooked) and Tom is playing with the Wii. Liz goes to play with a friend, mostly. The hilarity begins when Liz comes home and wants a turn on the Wii.

"Moooo-oooom. I want a turn on the Wiiiiii." (I'm convinced it was a diabolical Japanese linguistic plot that made that word so easy to whine.)

"Did you tell Tom about it?" (and off Liz goes, giving me a 30 second respite).

"Moooo-ooom. He says he's in the middle of something and he can't quit."

(Sigh. Eye roll.) "Tell Tom I want to talk to him." I realize using a fellow child as a messenger is probably bad parenting, but it gives me about another 60 seconds of study time before Tom plods sullenly up the stairs to hear the same. stupid. lecture I gave him yesterday.

"Haven't you been doing this since you got home? Isn't it true that Liz hasn't done it at all today? Why should she wait while you finish this level/battle this bad guy/find this save station?"

The lecture and rebuttals go on, but it's depressing enough to have shared this much of it.

In the past, I have told my classmates that I am willing to let their little minds fry while I'm in school if it means I can study unmolested. It hasn't played that way, plus their little minds are frying.

So today I declared a freedom from electronics day. They've been bored, they've wished I could be swallowed by the earth, but 3 of them are at a park with friends, and the fourth is out front with a buddy. None of them are plugged into anything (and I'm spending valuable study time writing a blog).

Electronic freedom day is about to become a weekly event!

A Beautiful Mother Moment

See this? Notice that the picture corners are peeling up? Notice that there are things scratched off and misspelled on both posters? And yet, if you look at this picture on the left, a dark arrow is pointing to a faintly circled A+. Why does such arguably shoddy work merit such a high grade?

Because, unusually in elementary school, this project was done exclusively by the second grader to whom it was assigned. Liz came home and said "I have to do an Africa report." and I said "Okay."

Then I did nothing. It wasn't due for a while, I was sure (they always give parents generous deadlines). And then I never heard anything more about it.

The next opportunity I had to remember it was the day I went to her class to volunteer. There on the wall, for all to see, were these two posters. Liz had gone on line, printed pictures, and found information all on her own. She'd cut out pictures, glued them on the poster, and taken them to school, all without any kind of parental supervision.

I mentioned that to her teacher, and I think that was why she got the A+. Not because I told him, but because it was so obviously all her own work.