Monday, September 10, 2007

Still an unschooler at heart

Life has thrown soooo much at us lately. Things started getting tough last November when at 26 weeks my pregnancy got really painful. We made it through that (the kids helped with the housework more than normal), and had a wonderful birth. Our sixth child is a wonderful little boy with a sweet disposition. Just before having him I learned about elimination communication, and how I had unknowingly diaper trained my other children. We started EC'ing the first two weeks almost strictly, but then my MIL left, and I was taking care of the house and children alone again. EC'ing fell mostly by the wayside, but I was at least able to keep it up some so that now at 7 and a half months, Nathan still remembers the psss, psss signal for pee, and will go on cue.
When Nathan was weeks old, I started getting hit with postpartum depression. My seratonin levels had basically tanked. It went from bad to worse. I felt like I couldn't possibly go on, I was so depressed. And then the anxiety hit. I started on Zoloft, and it didn't start getting completely better for about 3 weeks. Thank goodness for Zoloft! I don't even want to think about how horribly bad off I'd be if I hadn't started taking it. I honestly don't know if I would have made it. My kids were what kept me going, but it was a minute to minute mental battle a lot of the time.
Since the Zoloft kicked in, I started feeling good. I am actually able to think positively! It seems like I am actually better off mentally now than I have ever been. I'm normally not the most positive person.
Then the craziness set in with our advertising business. The local scene was not good. We had too much overhead and not enough contracts to support us. My husband started doing long distance driving, which means that I take care of the house and the kids, and all the local business stuff, on top of the finances for both companies. Again - thank goodness for Zoloft!
Today was a busy day. We (the kids, my MIL, and I) all went to our business's garage by about 11:30am. We changed out signs on the trucks, and washed them. It took all day. We left the garage by 9pm. The kids had a lot of fun. They got to play all kinds of things. They made shops (see the post about their basement town) on the roof of my husband's office. They used hoses as ropes tied to the railing, and climbed the wall of the office. They used the rolling office chairs, and the creeper as riding toys out in the driveway. They went dumpster diving (but didn't find anything this time). They watched Toy Story and Ant Bully. Oh yeah, and Travis and Savannah wrote choose your own adventure stories. All this as well as helping to work on the trucks' sign changing.
Jesse and I listened to some of the history of the Federal Reserve on my Ipod, on the way to the garage. Travis must have found it interesting too, because he asked me to turn off 'the story' because it was distracting him from writing his book.
When we got home (after eating a late dinner, Travis continued working on his story until about 11pm. Aaron drew a few pictures of a monster scaring Woody (from Toy Story) while Travis worked on his story, and Jesse searched the internet for parts for his home-made skateboard (actually a Wave Board). Grandma Schooling told him that if it was reasonably priced, she would pay for the parts! So, he wrote out a list to go with the plans he drew up earlier today.
What creativity! Today was one of those days that totally makes up for the days we spend watching movies.
I titled this post "still" an unschooler at heart, because I bought a curriculum this year..... Yes, moan, groan, a curriculum. I fell prey to the "what if my kids don't know what they'll need to" syndrome. Today was totally an unschooling day. I loved watching it. We are supposed to start the new school thing this week. It involves the kids watching a teacher on DVD. We'll see how it works out. Maybe they'll love it. I think what will defenitely help them like it is the fact that I am NOT worried about tests, scoring, or anything right now, if ever. I want them to look at it as a buffet of learning, not a taskmaster.
Well, it's really late, and I am going to be beat tomorrow. But thanks to homeschooling, I'll be sleeping in along with all of my kids! I can't imagine having to drag them out of their peaceful slumber to put them on the bus after a tiring day like today! Not to mention the fact that I wouldn't have gotten to be with them, and they wouldn't have been able to do all that creative stuff!