Sharing A Room

School is officially done for the year, which means we have nowhere to be in the morning! And that means that the long awaited switch to sharing a room can happen! I have been anticipating this as much as they have, probably. They both sleep for about 11 hours at night: Rachel usually from 8pm - 7am and Laura 9pm (or later) - 8am, so I would really like them to go to bed at the same time so I have more time to get things done. Hoping to find a middle ground; from 8:30pm - 7:30am would be ideal. Tonight is the first night the girls are going to sleep together in their shared room. They didn't go to sleep until after 10pm. Tomorrow may be rough. But we don't have anywhere to be!
Will come back and post updates on the progress.

(note: still need to finish painting and matching duvet covers to come)

Three days in:
The girls are still going to bed ungodly late and keeping each other awake, but they have mostly stayed contained in the room, at least. Laura fell asleep this afternoon on the couch, so that hasn't helped going to bed at a reasonable hour. Rachel seems to have transitioned pretty seamlessly to sleeping in that room. She hasn't asked once to sleep in the crib, though we haven't taken it down yet. They've been pretty grumpy all weekend, too, but I suppose that is to be expected. ;)

Three months in:
We have taken to putting the girls to bed at different times because they did not end up self-regulating into an age-appropriate sleep routine together. Rachel is now put to bed between 8 and 8:30, and Laura usually about half an hour after that. Rachel still wakes up at 7 most days, and sometimes Laura will wake up with her, and sometimes she sleeps a little longer. This was not the ideal outcome I was hoping for, but at least we have a craft room/ office/ extra room out of the arrangement, so I guess we will still call it a win.

Preschool Graduate

Yesterday was supposed to be Laura's preschool graduation ceremony, but all of us were up all night the night before with a terrible, disgusting puke virus that allowed for very little sleep. So we missed her celebration. Thankfully the preschool runs two ceremonies to accommodate the students in all of the classes, so Laura was able to attend today instead. It was kind of bittersweet since she didn't get to celebrate with her regular class, but I would have been heartbroken if she didn't get to go at all. And really, she didn't even mention that most of her friends weren't there, so maybe it's just me. ;) Either way, we are very proud of how far she has come in the last two years at nursery school, and are looking forward to homeschooling in the fall while Rachel gets a turn to go to nursery school.

A Year of Afterschooling

     I originally started keeping track of all of my ideas, activities, and lesson plans in this blog post last year. I had planned to incorporate all different subjects (music/ reading/ math/ etc) into each weekly theme. And we had a lot of fun, especially over the summer with our weekly themes as they provided a nice cohesive element for me to work with. However, in October, we all got sick for a couple of weeks, and in that time, my energy and motivation were derailed. I was burnt out. We continued half-heartedly with themed learning here and there through the winter to varying degrees, and although there was less structure, I still feel that Laura gained a lot. I always try to capitalize on it when she shows interest in something, so she is now able to write her own name completely unassisted, is learning to read, can count to 30 (though needs some help through 14 & 15), has a good vocabulary, and people often comment on how well she speaks. She is strengthening her fine motor skills (and her patience!) learning to use the track pad on my laptop to play phonics games. We still work from her workbooks occasionally, and we try to read something every day. Sometimes that leads to more inquisition and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it provides us a jumping off point for new ideas, and I find it so much more memorable when the learning and inquisition happen organically. And so our afterschooling has more or less morphed into unschooling. I intend to continue providing opportunities for Laura (and Rachel) to expand their horizons on their own terms this coming year.

(For those interested, these were the themes that we have followed/ worked with:)

Teeth

Canada

Berries

Fairytales

Dinosaurs

Outdoors

Beach

Zoo

About Me!

Apples

Fall

Squirrels

Thanksgiving

Pumpkins

Remembrance Day

Frozen

Christmas

Willy Wonka

Valentines

Oceans

Olympics

Disney

St. Patrick's Day

Spring

Easter

Laura Sees Peter Pan

      Tonight my mom took Laura and I to see a pantomime of Peter Pan. Laura has never been to the theatre to see a play before, but we thought she was ready and she would enjoy it, and we were right! It was so great, and the fact that it was a pantomime (players interact with audience) was helpful to her experience, too. We were sitting in the second row and one of the characters threw candy into the audience, so she got some and I feel like that sealed the deal (haha). She said her favourite parts were when the man dressed like a woman threw candy to her, the mermaids, and the fight between Captain Hook and Peter Pan. And she even got to meet Peter Pan, who was greeting patrons after the show. We had a really great time, and I'm looking forward to the next time we can take her to another show!

Hardest Job Ever

Some days I just want to quit. Like today. I am worn down from constantly feeling inadequate, and like I am not doing my best. And that is exhausting and disheartening to feel so regularly.

Today we were walking home from piano lessons, about a 1km walk that we have done a million times, and Laura was dawdling. Granted Laura had not been feeling well last night (but seemed fine this morning), but even when she does feel fine, she is a dawdler. To put it in perspective, her two year old sister was the one leading our pack. I had a stroller, but not the double, so one of them had to be walking. They took turns swapping out who would ride. Laura was whining, so I'd let her ride, then Rachel would whine, so I'd make Laura walk, etc. I eventually got fed up with constantly asking Laura to keep up, so I just kept walking. Laura was starting to lag further and further behind until she was about 50m behind us. About 3 driveways and obviously always in sight. We waited for her at intersections, and once we had passed the last one before our house, I stopped waiting for her to catch up. I kept an eye on her, but didn't wait. I was trying to teach her that she is responsible for keeping up, and the natural consequence is to get behind. She dawdled down the side of our street, stepping in puddles, and clearly in no hurry to get home. I had taken Rachel in the house, but could still see Laura through the window. Finally she came in.
A few minutes later, I see a cop car drive by. And then he walks up to our door. I assume it must be a mistake. I open the door and say hello. The policeman says, "Is she still here?"
Ahh, this must be a mistake, I have no idea what he is talking about. "Is who still here?" I ask.
"The girl."
A blank stare.
"I got a call saying a three year old girl was out by herself and walked into this house..."
"Oh, well we were just walking home from the library, and she was a little behind me..."
"Oh, I'm sorry for the confusion. Are you the mother?"
"Yes."
He seemed apologetic and sort of like he felt it was a waste of his time, but took down my and Laura's names and dates of birth and left.

Afterward, feeling shaken up, I explained to Laura that the policeman came to our house because they were worried she was lost because she had been dawdling by herself, and could she please not do that again.
She didn't seem too phased by it, but it has certainly put a damper on my day. Ugh.
Part of me is trying to feel grateful that we have caring enough neighbours who want to protect our kids, but part of me is feeling defeated in my parenting, and can I do anything right, ever? And all of the parenting mistakes I have made to date come screaming back to the forefront of my brain in an overwhelming wave reminding me of how inadequate I am.
And so I kind of feel like quitting. Except I can't just do that.

Ear Infection

Rachel has been so sick for the past two nights with a good fever going. We finally took her to emerge and the (new) doctor said it looked like she had an ear infection. He was not especially convincing in his diagnosis, but prescribed antibiotics for her, and her fever didn't break until we gave them to her. Poor thing. He also said he wanted her to stay at the hospital until he was sure she was taking in enough fluids (after I had told him she had been doing nothing but taking fluids.) He later retracted that clause and said we could go even though she had not drank anything the nurses brought for her. She was so tired, but did so well. Her poor little body seems so drastically responsive to environmental cues, always with the really flushed cheeks when she is hot, etc. I hope she feels better soon, it breaks my heart to see her like that.

Leaps & Bounds

    Laura is currently going through a growth spurt of independence. She has learned how to fully dress and undress herself, and has been rampantly practicing taking her clothes on and off, jammies to clothes, clothes to naked, naked to jammies, all day long! I am pretty excited she has finally grown some independence in this area, and although the incessant wardrobe changes are a little exasperating, I know she is just practicing her new skill that will leave me with a little less to do for her. So I'm pretty happy about it!

     She has also started showing a real interest in letters and their sounds and more specifically what happens when you put the sounds together! We have started some rudimentary phonics, and she has the skills now of an early reader! This, too, has me ecstatic!! I am sooo excited to introduce her to the world of reading!

     In a not-so-great leap of independence, Laura has come to let herself out of the house as she pleases.  She has been able to open doors for a long time now (obviously), but only recently has she started taking off without telling me she is leaving. I have to have a pretty keen ear for the door opening and closing now! (And we have talked several times about the importance of telling mommy when she wants to go outside and play before she does it!)

And! Not to be left in the dust, Rachel has started making preliminary progress on the potty training front! We have had some success with her peeing on the potty, and that has me doing a happy dance, as well!