Day #72: Today was a Tough Day to Be James
Zoom actually wasn't the worst part of school today...the worst part was having to write a title, a topic sentence, and four facts about sharks.
I feel like this is a lot for a kindergartner, but it's been a *really* long time since I was in kindergarten, so I will reserve judgment on that. And he's capable of doing it. What he's not capable of doing is doing it without mistakes and restarts along the way and such things are very hard on James, who is very hard on himself.
I may have texted Daddy HELP 10 minutes after Zoom ended. And Daddy did help.
It also doesn't help that, and Mama is just editorializing here, but based on the example his teacher sent it doesn't appear she knows what a topic sentence is. At least, her demo of a topic sentence did not fit MY understanding of what a topic sentence is.
We tried a number of different ways of doing this, with daddy, with me, with timeout, with deep breathing. What ended up happening was he wrote at my desk with me while I worked on my own second draft of my novel in verse. Which, even though I'm not sure I'm going to take my novel in verse past a second draft, I do want to get the second draft done at least and I hadn't worked on it in almost 2 months so that felt good. It has five sections, if I get on it I may even finish section three tonight.
After all of that, I took James on a little drive with me, we went through the coffee drive in to get treats and then over to the bookstore which is now doing curbside pickup. I got Neil Gaiman's book on why art matters, which I really wanted to read as soon as I knew it existed. I knew it was a children's book...it is much shorter than I thought which is a little bit disappointing but I think I will read and love it anyway and maybe it will be a book that was always meant to live in James's room. That's okay too.
He seemed a little better after we got back but then I had to run down to the post office to send a book off to a friend and he thought he saw a bee outside and to James that is just...the end. And it kinda was. He really never recovered...even though I have the CUTEST video of the two of them dancing to the radio while Daddy made dinner.
As for Max, he's doing okay except he is a milk fiend. I don't mind still nursing him...I nursed James until 2.5, mostly because I was too lazy to wean him...but it was easier to set boundaries, like we don't do this except at nighttime and naps, that kind of thing. I would love to start doing that with Max but it's harder when he is always with me and we don't have a lot of stuff going on. With James we'd have days where we were just out all day and didn't have the time or need to nurse. We never have times when we are out all day and it's just been harder to set limits. I'm getting kind of tired of him trying to take my shirt off all the time. Toddlers, man.
It was just a long day to end a long week and without anything to look forward to there's not a ton of motivation. I just want to eat chocolate and watch TV. And, honestly, it's Friday night, I might just do that.
Media consumption: I finished Operating Instructions and it honestly suited my mood just perfectly. I was gonna try to finish Flora & Ulysses tonight but may not get that motivated. I started Anne of Windy Poplars on audio, I like it, but I'm glad I've made the decision this is my last Anne for awhile. It's a good choice. I've been watching How I Met Your Mother on Hulu which is an indication that I am completely brain fried.
Today I'm grateful for co-parenting, turning off facebook, sunshine, reading outside, reading with kids climbing on me, reading, all the reading, writing, bookstores, books about writing, getting out of the house, that the family cleaned the living room without me, chocolate, showers, weekends, and my wonderful family.
I feel like this is a lot for a kindergartner, but it's been a *really* long time since I was in kindergarten, so I will reserve judgment on that. And he's capable of doing it. What he's not capable of doing is doing it without mistakes and restarts along the way and such things are very hard on James, who is very hard on himself.
I may have texted Daddy HELP 10 minutes after Zoom ended. And Daddy did help.
It also doesn't help that, and Mama is just editorializing here, but based on the example his teacher sent it doesn't appear she knows what a topic sentence is. At least, her demo of a topic sentence did not fit MY understanding of what a topic sentence is.
We tried a number of different ways of doing this, with daddy, with me, with timeout, with deep breathing. What ended up happening was he wrote at my desk with me while I worked on my own second draft of my novel in verse. Which, even though I'm not sure I'm going to take my novel in verse past a second draft, I do want to get the second draft done at least and I hadn't worked on it in almost 2 months so that felt good. It has five sections, if I get on it I may even finish section three tonight.
After all of that, I took James on a little drive with me, we went through the coffee drive in to get treats and then over to the bookstore which is now doing curbside pickup. I got Neil Gaiman's book on why art matters, which I really wanted to read as soon as I knew it existed. I knew it was a children's book...it is much shorter than I thought which is a little bit disappointing but I think I will read and love it anyway and maybe it will be a book that was always meant to live in James's room. That's okay too.
He seemed a little better after we got back but then I had to run down to the post office to send a book off to a friend and he thought he saw a bee outside and to James that is just...the end. And it kinda was. He really never recovered...even though I have the CUTEST video of the two of them dancing to the radio while Daddy made dinner.
As for Max, he's doing okay except he is a milk fiend. I don't mind still nursing him...I nursed James until 2.5, mostly because I was too lazy to wean him...but it was easier to set boundaries, like we don't do this except at nighttime and naps, that kind of thing. I would love to start doing that with Max but it's harder when he is always with me and we don't have a lot of stuff going on. With James we'd have days where we were just out all day and didn't have the time or need to nurse. We never have times when we are out all day and it's just been harder to set limits. I'm getting kind of tired of him trying to take my shirt off all the time. Toddlers, man.
It was just a long day to end a long week and without anything to look forward to there's not a ton of motivation. I just want to eat chocolate and watch TV. And, honestly, it's Friday night, I might just do that.
Media consumption: I finished Operating Instructions and it honestly suited my mood just perfectly. I was gonna try to finish Flora & Ulysses tonight but may not get that motivated. I started Anne of Windy Poplars on audio, I like it, but I'm glad I've made the decision this is my last Anne for awhile. It's a good choice. I've been watching How I Met Your Mother on Hulu which is an indication that I am completely brain fried.
Today I'm grateful for co-parenting, turning off facebook, sunshine, reading outside, reading with kids climbing on me, reading, all the reading, writing, bookstores, books about writing, getting out of the house, that the family cleaned the living room without me, chocolate, showers, weekends, and my wonderful family.
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