Homeschool Ketchup

On December 7, 2014December 7, 2014 By Anna EastlandIn Homeschool, Photos7 Comments

So we didn’t make ketchup as a home school cooking project, I’m just inclined to love silly puns, so here’s a few photos to help you catch up on what the girls have been up to. A quick ‘ketchup’ post.

This is everyone with Grandma, who brought new school supplies…which always makes studying far more exciting, even for the little ones.

It makes me happy to see the older ones helping the little ones…because isn’t one of the most important goals of education to help people learn to care for and take care of others?

We also rearranged the furniture—another simple trick to make kids more excited about sitting at their desks to work!

My little preschooler is picking up stuff by osmosis…look what she tried to write all by herself!

Sometimes doing math together, with little silly drawings and stories, really helps supplement the workbook problem pages, and turns repetitious math questions into an opportunity to bond. Snacks help, too! You’d be amazed how much better my daughter learns math when she is using crackers to count with, and to keep her blood sugar up! Double whammy! 😉

It seems that cutting paper in funny shapes, like a seashell for example, makes kids a lot more interested in writing in them! Here’s a page from an under the sea creature book. The ghastly deep water angler fish…

Look what I found to my delight on the white board…promise I didn’t bribe my daughter to write it! 😉 But I agree, while it can be a logistical zoo at times, homeschooling is such a beautiful way to bond as a family while learning about the world. It is truly “awsome” (yes, we’re still working on spelling!)…

Surprise, surprise; she’s just like me.

On May 14, 2014May 15, 2014 By Anna EastlandIn Family Life, motherhood, Ponderings2 Comments

After having a big conversation with my husband tonight about various little concerns about my eldest daughter’s character, I had an interesting revelation. Many of the things I see in my seven year old, I can also see in myself. For example:

She so social; she has a hard time amusing herself (I go stir crazy without friends).

She doesn’t know how to be alone and enjoy the silence (I’m always on the phone).

She lacks focus; she’s always flitting from thing to thing (I’m the queen of being distracted and leaving things half done).

She’s rebellious and gives attitude; she can be so hard to deal with (ahem! I can be that way myself, just ask my husband).

You get the idea.

You know the saying that we are most critical of the faults in others that we share ourselves? Well, I think it’s true for our attitude to our children as well. It’s a good thing to be aware of, because as their primary examples, our best bet is to work on ourselves. Especially as we are the only ones we can change anyway.

So I tried to think how this applies to me, how things I want for my daughter are also things I want for myself.

I remembered how when she was little she would spend hours pouring over a workbook, whereas now she prefers to run around with friends. I remembered how I used to study for hours, and write papers, and teach classes to other moms. I remembered how much I like learning, and how I haven’t been prioritizing this part of me lately. I remembered that part of me is a scholar.

I thought about how easily the word “bored” comes out of her mouth, and how she so often needs to be amused by others. I thought about how easily I complain about things to friends, and how I need their presence to cheer me up. I thought about the time when I knew better how to be alone, how to draw on interior resources of prayer, so that I could reach out to others with a smile and brighten their day. I thought about the part of me that is spirit.

I recalled how easily she drops things and runs to the next, and how easily I make excuses for doing the same myself: “I forgot,” “I was distracted,” “It’s too hard,” etc. I recalled a time when passion drove me to do things no matter how hard, to brave rain and snow, even windstorms, perhaps or the point of folly, to get where I wanted to go. I recalled the part of me that is brave.

So I guess I want for my daughter what I want for myself: to be wise, spiritual, and strong. To be a caring, cheerful person who boosts others up, instead of dragging them down. To be someone who knows how to work and contribute to the world. To be self-sufficient and secure in being herself. To be humble enough to listen to others without pride rebelling at every suggestion for improvement. To be someone who knows how to enjoy her own company, and to delve into the riches of her interior world.

So I guess tomorrow, instead of escaping working on my own growth by stressing about my seven year old’s imperfections, I’m going to try to remember all that is good and beautiful in her, and encourage it. And I’m going to try to work more on becoming the best me I can be, even though it can be hard.

One thing’s for sure; working towards the beautiful goal of improving myself is certain to be a lot more satisfying and rewarding than criticizing others, even if they are my kids.

Let’s try that again! When baby presses publish…

On April 18, 2014April 18, 2014 By Anna EastlandIn Family Life, motherhood2 Comments

Well, well, yesterday I broke my record for shortest post. A handful of words with a spelling mistake, and nothing more! This is because I was trying to multitask, as moms always do, and was blogging on the floor while my curious one year old tried to touch my iPad…and scared me into pressing “publish” by accident instead of “save draft,” before getting up to put my iPad away. So sorry to all my followers who received this weirdo post in their email inboxes!

What I meant to write about “brilliant yet simple parenting advice” (see my last post) was something like this:

Attention Modern Parents! The answer to all your woes is here! Would you like a simple way to advance your child’s social, intellectual and emotional development? Would you like them to be entertained for hours without your having to play clown? For them to learn their numbers, letters and colours with without you teaching them? For their speech and vocabulary to develop rapidly? For them to feel safe, happy and confident that they can contribute to the world?

Modern parents, ever concerned with their child keeping up with age-appropriate development, are salivating but clutching their wallets nervously. What could this secret solution be, and how much will it cost? Is it Baby Einstein DVDs, expensive preschool, private tutors for toddlers, a magic diet of organic seaweed? What could it be?!

The solution in fact is simple, natural, and fun to make.

It’s a sibling.

And if this seems too simple, here’s some photographic evidence:

First of all, despite excessive media paranoia about sibling jealousy, little kids naturally love babies, and therefore each other.

Having siblings does a lot of good things in a simple way.

Stimulating the imagination and developing speech = playing puppets

Encouraging them to observe their natural surroundings =
ants on the driveway are exciting when you look at them together

Expressing emotion and developing socially = playing dress up

Developing patience and delaying gratification =
waiting for your turn to ride the unicorn

Promoting contentment and appreciation for simple pleasures =
an hour whips by when you have a box and a baby to play with

Teaching responsibility and concern for others =
giving your baby brother a ride to the park

Building confidence and a sense of worth =
I’m a big sister and can take care of the baby

Promoting social development, building friendship and trust =
crossing the road together is safer and more fun

Stimulating a love for learning = big sister plays teacher

Kids pick up what’s around them so when they are surrounded with other little people they learn to speak, walk, sing ABC’s, count, dance, play, paint and draw without you as a parent even having to teach them. This has been my experience anyway. They also learn how to defend themselves, how to be loyal, and how to care for others. These are all great life skills, and hard to teach in a course.

So instead of frantically signing your kid up for Ferber, Gerber, Berber and every other new method that claims to be the magic solution for healthy development, how about signing them up for life by allowing them to experience the magic of family.

Besides, being the only can be lonely, especially when mom and dad are so busy taking care of things.

And as one added bonus, although you may be tired at the end of the day, so are your little fairies, who have been running themselves ragged playing together all day. You can enjoy some blissful quiet time…perhaps reading, blogging, or just staring at them thinking how beautiful they are when asleep.

The Perfect Parent Lives in Timbuktu (and is likely a Sasquatch!)

On February 25, 2014February 27, 2014 By Anna EastlandIn Family Life, Marriage, motherhoodLeave a comment

I haven’t met the perfect parent. It’s not me. It’s likely not you either.
But that’s ok. Children are born of love, not perfection.

Still, sometimes we wonder if there is a scientific formula for being the perfect parent, a special combination of elements that will help us get it just right.

Our society encourages this; we are told we must have the right economic, educational, medical, emotional, and intellectual circumstances to responsibly have a child. It seems a very dangerous and risky business, and one must be perfectly prepared.

Sometimes people wait their whole lives to be perfectly ready. Baby room painted just so. Millions in the bank. 800 parenting books read. Relationship so stable it makes mountains look wispy and wobbly. Health just so, taking the right 60 vitamins, and doing yoga 10 hours a day.

What happened to something that used to be so natural? A creative overflow of love? Isn’t the sincere love between parents already giving your child a lot, especially in today’s world?

But our fear of being imperfect parents in an imperfect world really paralyzes us so much as a society. We fear traumatizing our kids and are haunted of visions of their future therapist’s couch before they even leave their cradle.

We are told we better consult the experts constantly, because we as “mere parents” (just rabbits really) know nothing. I don’t think all this fear is actually making us better parents, just less confident and optimistic ones.

If we risk having one, we think we shouldn’t have another, because we’re not perfect yet. The funny thing is though, that having another child helps us to grow better, more mature, relaxed and confident, and therefore helps our first child, too. Experience is a good teacher.

So please don’t let fear of your imperfection stop you from loving; that would be a terrible tragedy. None of us had perfect parents, but we’re still glad to be here, in this messy, imperfect, absurdly beautiful world.

While I haven’t met perfect parents, I have met perfect babies.
Actually many of them.
More specifically, ALL of them.
Each baby is perfect.
A perfect gift, a perfect miracle, a perfect parcel of love.
Each one makes the world more beautiful. That means you, too.

Siblings help each other to grow as well, precisely through their imperfection, their foibles and stubborn streaks; experiencing all this children learn, in a context of love, how to get along with, embrace and accept others.

If we are teaching our kids to love, to care for others and help them when they are down, we are doing a lot toward making the world a better place.

My kids can squabble as much as the next ones, but I was happy to see my older girls stepping up and caring for the younger ones this week when they weren’t feeling well. Here’s a picture of my 5 year old reading bedtime stories to her little sister. Without being asked. That made me really happy.

So stop worrying about being perfect, unless you want to go live with the Sasquatch, who can maybe give you some pointers.

Personally, I think what you need as a parent is love, commitment, and a willingness to adapt and grow, because as much as parenting will make your children grow, it’ll make you grow more.

Happy trails! And may you be abundantly blessed in love.

“Who needs sleep?”

On January 21, 2014January 21, 2014 By Anna EastlandIn Family Life, motherhood2 Comments

Tonight the lyrics of a Barenaked Ladies song come to mind:

Who needs sleep
Well you’re never gonna get it
Who needs sleep? Tell me what’s that for?
Who needs sleep…this guy’s been awake since the Second World War!

It’s 2:30 am and with my kids sick it’s been a night of musical beds, coughing, crying, and administering Tylenol and ear medicine. Bit of a long haul lately. Good thing I had that last slug of coffee around 8pm, cause I’m holding up ok with a catnap here and there. I was hoping for a cosy evening with my husband, maybe watching a funny show together and falling asleep holding hands, but that was not to be. To prove my point, my two year old just crawled out of bed and brought me a Dora sticker book. Super!

“Dora…she can say map instead of saying map, Mama. Baby can’t have a show right now.”

“True enough.”

I’ve been playing Nurse Mommy for quite some time now, as I’m sure many other moms are this January. Post-Christmas-sugar-crash-cold. My house might feel like Slime Central Station, but it’s only one stop on the Flu Train. So cheers to all you other parents who are pulling crazy night shifts with sick kids…I’m with ya!

One buddy requested a poem of the soundtrack of our house right now, so here goes:

Cough cough achoo
Whaaa, whaaa!

Cough cough achoo
Whaaa, whaa!

Muuuummmy!

Muuummmmy!

Ok, now repeat. 80 times. And intersperse with requests for vitamin C, apple juice, Kleenex, new blankies, another show, another chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and new diapers. You get the picture.

It’s made reading The Hunger Games trilogy even more suspenseful, if that’s even possible:

“Oh, no Katniss and Peeta are out of luck this time for sure…wall of poisonous nerve gas approaching…starting to convulse…”
“Achoo! Mummy! I need a Kleenex! And my sister has a bare bum!”
“What?! Coming!”

Peeta leaned towards her and spoke quietly, ‘Katniss, if we don’t make it back…’

“Mummy, I’m too hot. My tummy hurts. Why do we have to get sick? I need a bucket.”
“Coming!”

And so, my kids have ensured that this rare indulgence of reading a novel for fun has been sliced up into tiny little portions, lest I get a sick tummy from overdoing it. How thoughtful! 😉

Of course, when I do need to escape from my escape, the treacherous world of Panem, with it’s ruthless Capital and sadistic gamemakers, it’s so nice to have those little lovely faces to burst into bright smiles after a few tickles, and throw their little chubby arms around my neck and hang on for dear life. Then, slime or no slime, there’s nothing better to warm my heart than a little snuggle with my wee ones.

They are our hope for the future and our joy in the present, and even though it’s demanding to care for 5 sick kids, I don’t see it as bad. If the measure of our humanity is in how we care for the weak and vulnerable, I hope that caring for them when they are sick will make me more compassionate and more human. Will help me grow…but hopefully not horns!

The other thing that’s been keeping me going in this flu marathon, is you, my wonderful readers. Just knowing you’re out there, and having other “big” people to talk to, or write to, is really great. Also, my iPad mini makes the most lovely sparkly harp sound every time someone likes a post, makes a comment, or starts to follow my blog, so these little magical noises brighten my day as I’m taking care of the kids. It’s like finding candy to see new notifications from my blogging platform, WordPress, on my home screen when I flip open my iPad.

You’re all awesome! Thanks for visiting Crazyland, and as my herd of wild monkeys has finally settled down, it’s time for me to sleep.

Comfort Food

On November 29, 2013November 29, 2013 By Anna EastlandIn Family Life, motherhood, Yummy in the TummyLeave a comment

Sometimes in this busy complicated world full of parenting experts and conflicting theories, of ever wondering if what you’re doing is right, or if it’s enough, it’s nice to take refuge in doing something simple. My five year old left her afternoon quiet time show to make these banana muffins with me, just in time to pour in the chocolate chips. My seven year old arrived home to a hug, a tickle, and a warm homemade muffin. If nothing else at the end of the day, I’ll have this.

Just East Of Crazy Land

Tag: parenting

Homeschool Ketchup

Surprise, surprise; she’s just like me.

The Perfect Parent Lives in Timbuktu (and is likely a Sasquatch!)

“Who needs sleep?”

Comfort Food

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