February 3, 2012

Our Day in the Life 2012

By Mindy

Date: February 2, 2012.

Players: Henry, age 6; Samuel, age 5; Kate, age 3; Becca, age 3

No disclaimers. It is what it is.

I woke up at 6:42 a.m. feeling more rested than usual. Joe forgot to set our 5:00 a.m. alarm, but neither of us were complaining. Our early mornings tend to take a toll later in the week, especially if we haven’t been very diligent about getting to bed at a decent hour. Yes, it’s been one of those weeks.

I had time to pray and read my scriptures before the kids started filtering into our bedroom. We piled on the bed for our family scripture study before the kids ran into the kitchen for breakfast. It’s oatmeal for the kids, and since I was up late last night, I decided to try Aimee’s Apple Pie Steel-Cut Oats in the slow cooker. My 4-cup Pyrex wouldn’t fit in our slow cooker, so I had to cut the recipe in half. I know the kids would like this recipe, so for the moment, I was very happy that there wasn’t enough to share! It was delicious and Joe and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We got Daddy off to work and then aliens descended and abducted my children while I was getting dressed (no shower today! Ah, sweet slumber…).

A little back story might be helpful here.

My four kids are three years apart. I’ve been in survival mode for the last three years. I feel like I’ve gotten my footing as a mom, but there are lots of things that I have to let go. Cleaning frequently is one of those things. I’ve made feeble attempts to teach my children how to clean the toilet and unload the dishwasher, etc., but what happens is that all four of my kids are eager to help at the same time. It’s just plain HARD to put shoes away, pick up books, wipe down a bathroom counter, and make a bed simultaneously, with helpers. So most of the time, I end up doing it myself because it’s faster.

A few months ago, in a moment of brilliant brainstorming, I came up with the idea to write various small chores on a little foam stars glued onto tongue depressors. There are eight for the morning and eight for the evening. Each child draws two stars at random and they have the option to put one of them back if they’re not feeling it for both chores. As we inaugurated this program, we drew one star at a time and I showed all four of them how to complete that task, and then we moved on to the next one. It worked well for a while, and then the holidays rolled around, and well, we haven’t gotten back into the groove yet.

Enter the aliens. My kids, of their own accord and smiles on their faces, divvied up the morning stars and with little assistance from me, completed their tasks. Cue heavenly chorus. Two of the four even made their own beds without any prompting!

Home Economics = A+

I was so inspired by their industry that I started sweeping the kitchen floor. Samuel, in his exuberance to take the recycled items to the outside bin, chose the low road after a rain and tracked mud all through the kitchen when he reentered the house. I needed to mop anyway, so I just thanked him for seeing that he was making muddy footprints and for taking his shoes off before he got to the carpet.

While I mopped (and perhaps hummed a little as I did so), I listened to the joyous sounds of the kids entertaining educating themselves. For Sam and Henry, it was Engineering and Architecture (a.k.a. Legos). For Becca and Kate, it was Interpretive Dance and Drama (a.k.a. playing Dance Class and re-enacting their favorite scenes from The Parent Trap. Hailey Mills version, of course.). My, this morning is shaping up to be just heavenly.

I took advantage of the relative quiet to prep the day’s school work, and had time to work one-on-one with each of the girls before lunch. For Becca, it was the numbers 7-10 via a dinky dollar store workbook. For Kate, it was the same numbers from an identical dinky dollar store workbook, plus six pages of her Explode the Code primer. She’s in Book Two (Get Set for the Code). Becca hasn’t shown any interest in her primers, so I’ve been playing math games and doing occasional workbook pages with her. She’s cool with that.

During lunch, I directed the boys’ attention to our school wall so they could see what was on the docket for the day:

Yes, I know the chart says “What are we doing this morning?” But I am not crazy. My kids did their chores PLUS now I had a sparkling clean kitchen floor. There was no way I was about to give all of that up for grammar.

Besides, it’s the idea. The boys know that they can’t take the word strip off the chart until they’ve completed it. Time is irrelevant.

Samuel and Henry each got a private math lesson (we use RightStart A and B, respectively) before I called them both back to the table for grammar and handwriting together. We’re using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind for grammar. Today’s lesson was on aunts, uncles, and cousins (common nouns) and the special names for their aunts, uncles, and cousins (proper nouns). Samuel is using the Getty and Dubay Italic Book B for handwriting and is about halfway through; Henry finished Book B last month and now copies a sentence or two from the Narnia books for his handwriting.

We finished with enough time for me to do the girls’ hair and get them dressed in leotards and tights for their afternoon dance class before we were out the door. The boys decided ahead of time that they wanted to find a quiet corner at the rec center and read aloud to me so they could log some time on their Read to Succeed charts; they both have about two hours left before they qualify for those Six Flags tickets!

Daddy beat us home by a few minutes, so he heard all about the kids’ day while I heated up leftovers for dinner.

After dinner, it was jammie time (no baths because we just re-caulked the tub and it needed to cure) and as a reward for obeying quickly, the kids chose to watch an episode of Star Wars: the Clone Wars (or something like that!). I checked email while Joe caught up with his Wired magazine subscription. When Star Wars was over, we all piled on the couch and read stories together before brushing teeth, going potty, and getting tucked into bed for the night.

When all was quiet in the house, Joe and I worked our way through the five loads of laundry I’d managed to run through the washer and dryer during the day. We caught up and got some needed face time in while we folded, and Joe had me listen to his latest podcast so I could critique it before he sent it to iTunes. Then we got ready for bed ourselves and made sure the alarm was set for 5:00 a.m.

I’m pretty sure I fell asleep smiling. 12 hours later, and I still couldn’t get over the fact that my kids had cleaned the house and that I had a clean kitchen floor.

6 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Handwriting, Math, Reading

January 25, 2012

Flipping the switch

By Mindy

One of the things I feel like I’ve constantly struggled with in terms of teaching the boys to read has been in making the transition from easy (EASY) readers to real book reading. We’ve been hovering in this no-man’s land for a year. I’ve been at a loss. We keep plugging away at The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, and using Explode the Code to reinforce the concepts learned, but I haven’t been able to get away from the feeling that it should somehow be easier than this.

I don’t know what happened, but something flipped the switch in Henry’s mind. He wants to read now.

We were cuddling in a chair one night and were about to start reading a library book. A quick glance at the first page told me that he knew all of the words but one. So I encouraged him, saying, “I’ll bet you can read most of the words on this page!” I try that tactic every now and then, usually unsuccessfully. But this night he took the bait. And read that page. And turned the page and read the next one. And on and on until he finished the book. He was beaming. He’d just read a real, live book! It was an awesome moment for both of us.

But it didn’t stop there. The next night he brought me another book and sat down and read it to me.

Lately, it’s been a mad quest to see how many books we have on our shelves that he can read. The librarian congratulated me this week for checking out the most books of anyone that day (47).

But it hasn’t stopped there. Me-Too (a.k.a. Samuel) has entered the competitive arena and is keeping pace with his brother. On a good day, I’ll be on the couch with each of them for an hour at a time. AND I’M NOT THE ONE DOING THE READING.

Literally like flipping a switch. It’s so exciting for me to watch.

And speaking of switch flipping…let’s talk about Kate for a minute. I’ve been working with her and with Becca separately, and have discovered that Kate is anxious to move past the dinky dollar store workbooks and really start learning. I’ve been using the Explode the Code primer series with her and she is eating it up. She’s 3, people. And she’s doing 12 workbook pages a day. 5-6 days a week. Crazy awesome.

And this is why I home school. Readiness. I have the ability to teach my kids when they’re ready for it, rather than slip them in to a prescribed public school time line. For Henry, (and Becca, I suspect) readiness comes in it’s own time, perhaps a little past what their peers are doing. For Sam and Kate, it’s about being able to give it to them when they’re ready for it, instead of putting it off because they’re not “old enough.”

It all makes for a great balance, really. I get the full spectrum, from encouraging, teaching, re-teaching, and finding new things to try, to not being able to teach it fast enough. From practicing hard things a little bit every day, to watching the switch flip. Love it.

Leave a comment | posted in Reading, Ruminations

December 3, 2011

Ah, the well laid plans…

By Mindy

In 2004, Joe and I were teaching early morning seminary to a class full of 28 teenage students, ages 14-18, whom we knew next to nothing about. We flubbed our way along, one “learning experience” after another. After one of our lessons went disastrously in a different direction than we intended, I ended up calling our area supervisor for advice (and to let him hear our side of the story before it got to him some other way). He laughed and told me, “Every day’s the first day of seminary!” We got the point. If something wasn’t working, we were under no obligation to continue. Make a change! Get the train back on course!

I find myself thinking about that quote a lot. It was good to learn that lesson nearly eight years before I needed it.

We’ll be making changes to our homeschool days when we get back to it in January. We’re taking a break for a few weeks and will be lying low while I get things ready for Christmas, out of town guests, and finish up some painting and organization projects in our home.

What I wanted to have happen:

  1. Reading, ETC, Handwriting = 4 days a week
  2. Grammar = 3 days a week
  3. Math = 4 days a week
  4. History = 3 days a week
  5. Science = 2 days a week
  6. Piano = 5 days a week
Ambitious? Yes. But realistic. Handwriting, Grammar, and Piano only required 10 minutes or less a day.

What was happening in reality:

  1. It took about two weeks to turn into drudgery
  2. Mom spent most of every day encouraging, prodding, and cajoling to get the day’s work done, literally spending between 5-7 hours taking turns helping Henry and Sam one-on-one (so much for the teaching in tandem idea)
  3. Incentive charts were pulled out. Incentives seldom reached.
  4. Not a lot of time for play and decompressing
  5. The 10-minute timer was employed, with better results (each subject got timed for ten minutes and we’d just put it away when the timer dinged)
  6. Becca and Kate spent hours watching PBS every day so I could work with the boys
  7. All reading for fun disappeared

It really hasn’t taken me long to cry uncle.

I really liked “The Well-Trained Mind” theory. I thought it was a beautiful plan all laid out. But when I stopped to think about it, I realized that my kids are just that–kids. A 6- and 5-year old in whom I was squelching the joy of learning in favor of academic rigor. They didn’t need that. I wasn’t finding much joy in learning, either. I wasn’t finding time to work with my girls. I hated that we weren’t cuddling on the couch and reading together for hours on end. I was constantly stressed out because I had no time for meal planning or preparation. Not cool any way you sliced it.

Curtain down. Intermission.

So here’s what I want to do going forward: all of it, just scaled back. Instead of history three times a week, we’ll do one. Instead of handwriting four times a week, we’ll do two. And etc. Two or three subjects each day before lunch. Afternoons will be dedicated to reading, aloud, together, one-on-one, boys practicing their reading…piles of books everywhere.

I feel much more at peace with the new plan. Besides, I think back to my reflection on our first year, and even as erratic as it all seemed to me, we managed to get a lot accomplished just by baby stepping. So that’s my new focus: just do a little bit every day. We’ll get there!

I love that every day is the first day of seminary.

Leave a comment | posted in Ruminations

August 26, 2011

Getting Ready for Year #2

By Mindy

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been grateful that I can consider homeschooling a hobby. I’ve had no end of fun getting things in order for our upcoming school year to start. The plan is to teach Henry and Samuel in tandem, with separate math classes. We’ll be following the recommendations outlined in “The Well-Trained Mind.”

The only curve ball I’ve had to learn to hit is that of my darling daughters letting it be known that they want in on this school thing, too. I finally decided to NOT participate in the preschool co-op that I’ve had Henry and Samuel do, mostly so I don’t overextend myself. I really want to focus on consistency with the boys. Besides, there will be a few standing play date appointments every week and the girls will be in a weekly dance class so they’ll be getting all the preschool socialization they need. So I’ve spent some extra time getting their preschool year put together, including amassing busy bags filled with learning activities that can keep them busy on their own when I need to spend time with the boys.

Things are almost ready and I am so excited for our October 1st start date!

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Just Plain Fun

July 31, 2011

Year One in Review (July 2010-July 2011)

By Mindy

Trite as it sounds, I can hardly believe it was a year ago that I sat down at the kitchen table and began teaching Henry how to read, which was the advent of our home schooling. All things considered, we’ve had a wonderful ride on the home schooling roller coaster this year. All of us have learned much!

Perspective is a wonderful thing, really. When I take into consideration the fact that none of my kids knew the sounds the letters in the alphabet make a mere 365 days ago, it is a marvelous feeling of accomplishment to know that today, all four of them can tell me the sound any letter makes. Not only that, but Henry—and Samuel—and even Kate and Becca (if you count the capital letter magnets) can read. A lot can happen in a year.

What began as Henry’s Kindergarten year in July found us adding the start of Samuel’s Kindergarten year in January, and Kate and Becca’s preschool in April. We’ve gone from putting the girls down for afternoon naps and having two hours to quietly work on school to having Mom tutor each child in turn for most of the morning. We’ve gone from two kids with library cards to four kids with library cards…at two different libraries.

So yes, looking back, the feeling of achievement is terrific. Did we accomplish anything in a year? Here’s the list, in brief:

Henry:

  • Completed “Hooked on Phonics,” Kindergarten level
  • Is nearly done with RightStart Math Level A (will finish before we start our next school year in October)
  • Completed Getty-Dubay Italics Handwriting Book A; is making good headway in Book B
  • Completed “Explode the Code” Book 1 and 2; is halfway through Book 3
  • On Lesson 62 (of 231) in “Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading”
  • Completed numerous science and art projects
  • Completed “Hooked on Spanish”
  • Nearly finished our social studies book (“Children Just Like Me”)
  • Memorized three poems and several Articles of Faith
  • Logged HOURS of reading time, including 8 classic read-alouds
  • Began piano lessons

Samuel:

  • Learned his alphabet and the sounds the letters make
  • Read through the first set of BOB books
  • On Lesson 51 (of 231) in “Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading”
  • Completed “Explode the Code” Book 1; is halfway through Book 2
  • Halfway through Getty-Dubay Italics Handwriting Book A
  • Completed “Hooked on Spanish”
  • Completed numerous science and art projects
  • Nearly finished our social studies book (“Children Just Like Me”)
  • Memorized three poems and several Articles of Faith
  • Logged HOURS of reading time, including 8 classic read-alouds
  • Is begging to start math and piano lessons

Kate and Becca:

  • Learned their alphabet and the sounds the letters make
  • Completed a workbook on shapes
  • Completed a few art projects
  • Memorized two poems
  • Logged HOURS of reading time

I’ve learned a few things along the way, as well, no surprise. Mostly, I’ve been pleased to discover that the reasons we gravitated toward the home education option are better in reality than in theory. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the flexibility home schooling gives us. Flexibility to start and stop as needed. Flexibility to try new curriculae or approaches or even put something away until the time is right for that student. We love being able to do school in the morning or the afternoon as the day requires. We love traveling in the off-season, and schooling during the blasted hot summer. I’ve loved discovering how much I enjoy teaching things to my kids and am excited to keep learning things right along with them. I’ve been surprised at how frequently questions or problems I’ve encountered have taken me to my knees. And I’ve been really grateful for the answers I’m led to. I’m grateful for growth.

All in all, I’ll call our first year a grand success. It’s been a good one. Sign us up for another year!

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Ruminations

July 7, 2011

Personality Embedded in Schoolwork

By Mindy

I have always delighted in the reality that each of my children are individuals (even my identical twins). That said, it has been an absolute pleasure to see that individuality come through the boys’ schoolwork.

Henry is an oldest child. Thus, it was no problem for this oldest child to recognize the need for order, neatness, and–dare I say it–perfection in his workbooks. Here are Exhibit A and Exhibit B.

Samuel, on the other hand, is combination engineer/artist. He is constantly drawing and creating. Thus, it was no surprise to see all of the doodling and embellishing take form while he’d wait for me to help him with something in his workbook. Here are some of my favorites:

(The giant climbing up the hill)

(The man so freakishly happy that he needed arms to express just how happy he was)

Evidence that Mom was taking too long explaining something to Henry.

(My favorite, the robber who needed legs to be able to get away with the cash)

In his defense, Sam is developing some nice handwriting and can make it through a page without doodles, if need be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Just Plain Fun

July 3, 2011

I knew it wasn’t just me!

By Mindy

In browsing the lovely interwebs for ideas for summertime fun, I stumbled on the ol’ grow a sugar crystal idea. You probably don’t remember, but we attempted this as a science project once. (Scroll to the bottom of the post for the crystal part.) What I failed to record here on the blog was that six weeks later, we still didn’t have crystals, just a two-inch layer of sugar at the top of our cups with sugar solution below that. I dumped the contents down the sink and chalked it up to not having a saturated-enough sugar solution. But I was still curious enough that I tried the experiment again on my own. Still no go. Four weeks and it looked pretty much the same, only this time, it was growing mold, too. In much the same way that making a good chocolate chip cookie eludes me, I figured this was one science project I’d never succeed at.

I still read this article, though, just in case there was something I’d missed. The only note-worthy piece of information was the 3 cups sugar to 1 cup water ratio (another vague detail in Mudpies to Magnets). But right below that were some troubleshooting links. Of course I clicked on those! And discovered….HUMIDITY is a project killer! That, and it’s likely that our solution cooled too quickly. Now I know for next time.

Meanwhile, I’m still really glad it wasn’t just me being a doofus and messing up an easy science project. Because I’m sure there will be plenty of other opportunities.

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Science

June 18, 2011

Reporting on Reading

By Mindy

It’s been two months since my last post, and I don’t think I can adequately convey the sense of the miraculous change that has happened in our home as it relates to reading.

My boys are reading.

My boys are readers.

My boys are anxiously taking turns with our easy readers so they can complete various Summer Reading programs…ON THEIR OWN. Honestly, this one surprised me to no end.

It is all just awesome.

I feel very grateful for the inspiration I received to help me structure our second attempt at learning to read. It all came together so much better than what I was coming up with on my own.

Seeing their progress on their sticker charts with the object of their desire at the top really kept Henry and Sam going. Slow and steady was the name of the game. Their enthusiasm for reading grew as they neared their rewards. I overheard them talking about what they wanted to work toward for their next chart, which of course, made me smile, because it meant that they intended to continue in the learning process.

Sam reached his goal first. He ended up getting Nitroblast (a bad guy) instead of Stormer (a good guy). There were a lot of brother negotiations involved, but part of it had to do with Henry having his birthday about a week before they finished and buying Stormer with some of his birthday money. They were both happy with the way things worked out.

Henry finished a few days after Samuel and ended up with Evo instead of Fire Lord (he wanted Fire Lord for his birthday more than he wanted it for the reward chart).

By the time we finished these charts, it became apparent to me that we were more than a little behind on our Explode the Code books. Since I felt strongly that we needed these as reinforcement for the things we were learning in Reading, we decided to structure the next incentive chart a little differently.

Incentive Chart #2 was 100% ETC (Explode the Code). I calculated how many pages they each had left in their workbooks and told them that this time, in order to earn a sticker, they had to complete four pages of their ETC. 4 pages = 1 sticker. The reward would be a $5 gift card at Target, where they could buy whatever they wanted. Henry caught onto a subtle difference with this chart early on. With the first incentive chart, he got 1 sticker/day of reading, regardless of how much he read. This new system didn’t say anything about what he was required to do (or be limited by) in a day. He quickly got in the habit of doing 8-12 pages (2 or 3 stickers) a day. As a result, he finished his chart almost ten days ahead of Sam.

Here’s the happy reader:

The kids were anticipating a trip to Target with Dad this weekend, so Samuel hustled and finished his last 16 pages yesterday.

His $5 gift card went toward two new Transformer toys.

The current state of affairs brings us to another incentive chart, the purpose of which is to get Henry through ETC Book 2 and get Samuel into ETC Book 2 so that I can begin the Silent E section of “Ordinary Parent’s Guide” with Henry and Consonant Blends with Samuel. Henry is working toward a box of Jawbreakers and Sam a King-sized Twix. I’m not entirely sure how much longer we’ll need incentive charts to keep us going, but I couldn’t keep up with the expectation of Bionicles. Too expensive! A gradual weaning process is my hidden agenda here. ;)

All in all, we are all very happy. The boys are feeling more confident with their new skills and I smile from ear to ear when I hear them sounding out words on signage, boxes, stores, merchandise, etc. We are on our way.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Reading

April 12, 2011

More thoughts about reading

By Mindy

When a topic rankles your soul unrelentingly, consumes any thoughts you may have in your “free time” (kid-free), is a subject of much prayer and fasting, and you start having inner dialogues to argue and justify the aforementioned thoughts, it’s pretty much futile to just wait patiently, no matter what you told yourself earlier.

Such has been my life with Henry and reading. Or non-reading.

To avoid rehashing all of the inner dialogues, here is my grand conclusion:

Unreadiness is not the same as unwillingness.

If Henry were truly not ready to read, then we would not have completed the Kindergarten level of Hooked on Phonics in four months. He would have struggled with identifying letters, most likely wouldn’t have known the sounds they make, and would have had a difficult time connecting the dots. This was not the case for him.

Which led me to realize that when you’re five years old, Legos are more important to you than learning to read. Duly noted. Who wants to do hard things, ever?

Time for Life Lesson 105.

We started tackling reading again this week. But my approach has been modified. This is the recipe I’m trying to follow right now:

  1. Change in curriculum. Now we’re using Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. I believe it’s working for Henry because he doesn’t have the pressure of a brightly colored book waiting to be read. That was the part he would balk at before. In this new book, the stories are encapsulated in the lesson and are illustration-free. So it works. This change is working for me because I felt there were too many holes in the logic and sequence of the Hooked on Phonics program. I like the systematic and very thorough approach in Parent’s Guide.
  2. Set a timer. I’ve been setting an egg timer for 10 minutes when we sit down to work on reading. If we finish the lesson, great. If not, no biggie. Ten minutes keeps it from getting big and overwhelming for Henry.
  3. Lots of positive reinforcement. I didn’t praise him enough in Round One. I’m trying to find one thing he did well in each lesson and sincerely compliment him on it. I’m trying to stress less and laugh more. We have lots of High Fives and hugs.
  4. Reinforce lessons learned. Again, learning from my mistakes the first time. Once he mastered something, we would just plow on. This time, I’m using Explode the Code Book One to reinforce the things he already knows. It feels “easy” to him, so he feels successful.
  5. Incentives. Hooked on Phonics had a sticker chart. That was fun. We could see our progress and be excited about it. Overall? Not a big enough carrot. Now Henry’s working toward a Lego Bionicle toy that he wants. He still gets the daily sticker for doing reading, but he’s a leetle more motivated to sit down with me for our ten minutes of reading now.

(I am clearly not a 5-year old boy. This does NOT motivate me!)

Once we had the Bionicle chart on the fridge, Me-Too (a.k.a. Samuel) wanted in on the gig. So he’s working toward this guy:

(Seriously? What happened to chocolate as a motivator?)

He’s doing great. I started him at the beginning of the Parent’s Guide and we flew through the review of consonants and vowels. We’re two or three lessons into the short-vowel sound words, and he makes it quite clear that he wants to do this himself, with no help from the teacher! I think reading will come much easier to him than to Henry.

I feel much better with this change in course. We can all do hard things, and the one thing I can’t wait to teach my boys is how awesome the feeling of satisfaction is when you conquer a mountain. Wish us luck as we climb.

2 comments   |  tags: , | posted in Reading, Ruminations

March 15, 2011

The Skirt Experiment

By Mindy

Last Monday, I found this gem of a blog post from Courtney on Latter-Day Homeschooling about the “Mom Uniform” and the image I portray by the way I dress. Simply stated and loosely quoted, she decided that she was going to make people think (herself included) that motherhood was the absolute best job in the world based on the way she looked and the countenance she carried.

I found myself smiling and nodding the whole time I read her post. With the help of two awesome friends, I broke out of the “Mom Uniform” (mine was solid color T-shirt and a pair of jeans) over a year ago and since then have had a blast redefining my Mom Style. I daily reap the benefits of looking and feeling my best. So I completely agreed with her.

But skirts. I hadn’t gone there yet.

And I had plenty of cute ones in my closet, too, just waiting for the Sunday rotation, my mood, and the stars to all align.

I immediately decided to try the uncharted world of skirts. So last week was “Skirt Week.” One skirt a day. Here’s what I learned:

  • Striking the balance of cute/casual in a skirt was harder for me than I thought it would be.
  • Yes, flip-flops go with skirts better than with yoga pants, but they don’t go with ALL skirts. I felt like one day, the skirt and flip-flop combo I tried gave me a stereotypical look I wasn’t going for.
  • I already knew this, but it was fun to be reminded: You can do everything/anything over the course of a normal day in a skirt.
  • I loved feeling pretty!
  • While introducing skirts immediately extended my wardrobe, it also gave me great urges to shop. I have a list now of pieces that would make skirt-wearing a more frequent occurrence if I had them. Dum dum dummmmm….
  • Who knew that the hubsters approved of this project 100%? Guess I don’t show enough leg on a regular basis.

Before I started The Skirt Experiment, my primary motivation for wearing make-up, styling my hair, and making a little more effort with my wardrobe was so that people wouldn’t look at me and think, “Oh. Homeschooling mom.” It’s not that I’m trying to hide the reality that I homeschool, or that I bake all of our own bread, make our laundry detergent, or stopped using shampoo months ago. I just thought it would be more fun if I could do all that plus look happy and–dare I say it?–normal.

But thanks to “The Mom Uniform,” I also realized that my motivation behind looking like I’m enjoying my journey as a mom was to send the message that I am. I love being a mom. I love teaching and nurturing and laughing and playing with these four wonderful little children I’ve been blessed with. I just want to look as happy as I feel.

It may seem silly to say this, but skirts took that happiness up a notch.

Bring it.

4 comments   |  tags: , | posted in Ruminations