New Beginning

The past few months have been quite difficult for us.  Preschool just didn't stand a chance against hyperemesis.  TV has become a constant in our house, and that has been all my son has done for months.  I have felt incredibly guilty not being able to do the things I wish I could with him to begin his education.  I have watched his behavior drastically change from the amounts of TV, and I was tired of all the tantrums that have resulted from it.  Everything started to be a struggle, so I wanted a change.

This past week the hyperemesis has started to lighten up (in exchange for constant contractions), so I decided to start reading to him.  I ordered a copy of Charlotte's Web off of Amazon to read to him.  I didn't have any idea how it would go over with him, but I needed to try.  It turned out much better than expected!
The first day we read Charlotte's Web, we ended up reading 55 pages, and then he brought armfuls of other books for me to read to him!

I was quite surprised at his selection of books that he wanted read to him.  Many of them had pigs in them.  One even went into detail about what a runt is.  It wasn't a fluke because I watched him scan his pile to pick out the precise books he wanted read.  It's nice to know that a 3 year old can still follow along with a chapter book.

 My son sure did surprise me.  He loves reading "Charlotte's Spider Web Book".  Every few paragraphs he would steal the book from me to read the letters at the top of the page, and then tell me the page number we were on.

Today is the second day I have limited TV.  Yesterday he didn't watch anything.  Today I am letting him watch Happy Feet.  His behavior has greatly improved, but it does need to be tested.  The real test will come when we take him to a store.

Even though he is allowed to watch a movie, reading has been his priority.  We read a few pages in Charlotte's Web, and then he took a laundry basket to his room.  He then pushed this huge basket of books down the hall for today's reading.  He fully expects Mommy to read them all to him today.

Today has been a good day.  It started by going through his toys to pick out what we can give to other kids.  I expected a lot of push back from him.  Instead he enjoyed helping!  I want to get him down to things like legos, trains, blocks, and a few cars.  Everything else I want gone.  It just takes too much space, and requires too much cleaning.

Hopefully I can continue this to a certain extent.

I Have A Hypothesis!

Well, my desire to begin homeschooling efforts has completely failed.  Not for lack of desire, but for health reasons (If interested you can read more here under the tag hyperemesis).  I finally came to terms that I can only do what I can do.  My son is still young (3), so I know that he doesn't need formal teaching.  I just wanted to start heading in that direction.

It just makes me sad because he is watching a lot more television that I would like.  At least he finds educational shows.  He really likes documentaries!  I am amazed at the stuff he can find himself on Roku.

A lot of his education right now is surrounded by mommy's medical visits.  He has learned a lot from those.  My doctors are great because they include him in the appointments.  He loves being able to stand on a chair, squirt goo on Mommy's belly, and then use the doppler to find baby sister's heartbeat.  He really gets spoiled by my OB.  (If you are in the Dayton area, Miami Valley Women's Health is highly recommended!)

Anyway, the whole point of this story was to record a fun conversation my husband and I had with our son yesterday before I forget.  For a little background, my son loves dinosaurs and trains.  Therefore, his favorite show is Dinosaur Train.  Buddy the T-Rex always has a hypothesis he tries out.  Here it goes:

Son:  "I have a hypothesis (pronounced hypoxis)!  It's a great idea you can test!"
Dad:  "What's your hypothesis?"
Son:  "That Mommy likes flowers and cake!"  (they had tested this out on Saturday by bringing me flowers and cake)
Dad:  "We already tested that hypothesis.  How about a new hypothesis?"
Son:  "Ummmmm.....I know!  Stegasaurus!"
Dad"  What about Stegasaurus?  What can we test?"
Son:  "I have a hypothesis that they have 17 plates!"
Dad:  "Ok, how do we test that?  I don't know where to find a Stegasaurus."
Son:  "At the Zoo!  We can count the plates at the Zoo!"

Yes, we do in fact have Stegasaurus at the Columbus Zoo until November 2, 2014.  Looks like we will be making a trip there this weekend to count the plates.  I have no idea where he comes up with these things, but I was so proud!

So, I guess even though he spends practically all day every day watching TV at least I know he is learning from it!

This weeks adventures.

Homeschooling has not begun like I expected.  Does it ever?  We spread out Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear for 2 weeks.  Little man didn't mind because he liked the book.  Here are some pictures from our efforts.

This picture shows Isaac working on basic writing skills.  Writing left to right, and following the line.  This wasn't his favorite activity.  His favorite activity was counting.  

Little man wanted Mommy to make snow so he could make a Snowlof (Olaf).  Obviously I can't do that, so I did the next best thing.  I microwaved a bar of soap, and then had him paint it.  

The brown are the arms and legs.  The purple is Anna.  The blue is Elsa.  

This past week was my birthday, and my husband surprised us with a trip up to Canada to visit family.

We went to Marineland.  Little man has taken a particular interest in killer whales, so even though it was expensive we really wanted to do it.

They had a little nursery for beluga whales.  We loved seeing the nursing whale.  It helped little man understand a bit more about how mommy is going to feed baby.  

Marineland gives kids lots of opportunities to feed the animals.  We fed bears, deer, fish, bison, and could have fed the beluga whales.  

 The area surrounding Niagara Falls, in Ontario, is rich with historic teaching opportunities.  We wanted to make sure Little Man got to see the locks.  He got to watch them load cargo onto the boats, and then see the bridge raise to let the boat go by.  Later on he watched the boat travel across Lake Erie.   

 No trip is complete without a visit to Niagara Falls.  His favorite part about the visit was watching the Maid of the Mist.

I am lucky to have such a good little boy.  My hyperemesis is back in full swing.  I have spent most of the past week in bed.  Luckily my son just likes to bring me books to read to him.  I just wish I could do more.  Luckily, he won't remember this part.  I keep reminding myself that he doesn't need to be learning anything in particular right now.  As long as he is playing he can learn.