March (so far)

Wow! Where have the days gone? It's the middle of March and my first blog for this month.

I've been actively reading all the pertinent posts from my homeschooling groups. An earlier case court had a negative outcome geared towards homeschoolers. For all you not in the know, the judge basically ruled that kids should not be homeschooled unless their parent was a qualified teacher. Now, this has many of us up in arms and ready to do battle. No offense to teachers, but I am edjumacated to teach my kid. Just because I don't have a teaching degree does not mean I am not qualified. And there are a multitude of things I would rather my child not learn from other children in "school". So, I've been busy reading, taking notes, and doing what I can to support the right to homeschool (although we have yet to officially homeschool).

We also added a class to our normal routine. It's called "Patches". It's a homeschooling "class" for the preschool aged. We've meet twice now (every Thursday for 12 weeks). The classes are approximately 1 1/2 hours long. We have a story and do some activity. The first class involved sewing a banner. We earned a sewing patch for that and attached it to the banner. The second class involved planting gladiola bulbs, which earned us a gardening patch. So for each class we earn a patch...hence the name "Patches" (but I didn't have to explain that part, now did I?!). Tomorrow's topic is insects. I've been asked to read a story so I am thinking Eric Carle. It will either be "The very hungry caterpillar" or "The very quiet Cricket".

March seems to be the month for births. Aside from a very special little boy being born a few days ago...we're attended 2 birthday parties and sent a gift to Z's cousin for his birthday. And come to think about it...all were boys! Anyhoo, somewhere along the way Z caught a cold. I was hoping all the hacking and coughing and snot was allergy related since I had similar symptoms and neither one of us had a fever. A trip to the doctor yesterday just to check proved me wrong. Z had a virus. Apparently, so did I. It hit me later that day. It must have hit the hubby too since he came home feeling like crap. (I think it was more psychosomatic since his all occurred after finding out from me that Z was sick and him having shared a drink the day before.) Daddy went to work yesterday and came home early. Sick daddy's get wiped out and had to stay in bed and rest. Z and I are on the mend. Dad went to work today but still feels like crap.

I kept Z out of preschool today. He was still coughing a little and had a sneezy snot so I felt it best to go infect strangers. I took him to the aquarium instead. There were hoards of kids and adults, but it actually wasn't too bad. I picked up a travel guide and found out we could ride the shuttle bus for free. We got on the Passport and rode to the Queen Mary. We walked over to see the Russian submarine. Inside the gift shop you could sit down and watch a short movie simulating events which might have taken place with the 300 foot sub. We even got a souvenir penny that cost me $0.51, but Z lost it when he got distracted by ants. The bus took us back to the aquarium, where we had our lunch, fed the birds, and went back to look at more sea life. It was a pretty nice day.

What else has been going on? Hmm...water pipe had a leak one Saturday that needed fixing ASAP. The plumber cut a nice hole on the outside of my house to fix it. At least it's somewhat discrete. It's on the ceiling as you go up the stairs to my home. We also had a homeowners association meeting the following Sunday. That usually lasts about 2 hours.

I've been going to my knitting meetings too on Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoon in Torrance when time permits. I've been doing my crocheting and knitting here and there. I promise to post more UFO's later (wish I had some FO's to post but that's my problem...too many great projects and not enough hands to finish them all!).

My house is looking trashed. I've got piles of stuff everywhere. Piles of educational material. Piles of crafts for Z. Piles of crafts for me. Regular old housekeeping piles...the bills and ads. Toys. Gifts for Easter. Eeeeek! At least the clothes are clean and the toilets and sink are too!! Small favors.