It seems that in honor of the loss of Alex’s fourth tooth, the Tooth Fairy decided to forego the conventional bit of cash she normally leaves for him and surprise him with a toy! She left a Clone Trooper action figure from the new line of Star Wars Clone Wars toys. For those of you that know Alex, you can imagine his sheer joy when he discovered it this morning. For those of you that don’t, just know that this kid LOVES Star Wars. Loves it mucho!
Here’s my kiddo with his front 4 teeth all missing at the same time. You should see him try to eat a cheeseburger! HA! But he gets the job done.
Green thing about today’s post: Alex was thrilled to discover in the package’s insert that some of the Clone Wars toys are 100% recycled. The Mighty Muggs say they are “100% recycled AWESOME”. And I love that. It’s awesome.
THAT is just stinking rotten cool!!! And dang….ok, he was cute before, but HOW CUTE is he without 4 of his teeth!!!
I read your comment on Pioneer Woman and thought I would encourage you toward homeschooling. It’s a great option. I’m in my 5th year of teaching at home and have loved it.
One great benefit is that you can tailor the education to the level of the child. I recently moved my 2nd grader to 3rd grade math, but he needed an extra year in phonics before he could read well. Public schools would have labeled him reading deficient. He just needed more time. They also would have held him back in math. He was ready for more.
Another wonderful thing is that you don’t have to do grades. In a one-on-one tutor situation the tutor knows what the student grasps firmly and what he needs more work on. There is no getting left behind and trying to catch up later. Mastery is the goal, not a score that passes.
I hope you consider homeschooling as an option.
Hey there =). Like Erin, I wanted to encourage you about homeschooling..it’s wonderful! We’re in our 4th year…I was kinda nervous b/c THIS year was the first year that I had two kids homeschooling at once (ages 7 and almost 4..the little one didn’t HAVE to start yet, but really wanted to, so why hold her back?)!!! But, thankfully, it’s going really great so far! =) To be perfectly honest, like everything else in life, there are days that it’s tough and frustrating, but overall, it’s soooo rewarding! There are soooo many options out there, aren’t there?? We use a distance-learning program from BJU Press (.com) and it’s fantastic..we lease a hard-drive for the year and the kids watch the teachers, just like on-line college courses. I prep the papers and projects, do grading and coaching, and answer questions all day long. =) I love this approach since I have a short attn span, but I have friends who do just books and love it, too. I’m blessed to know a few other moms and we get together on a regular basis and have gym classes, art classes and occasional field trips.
I think the biggest blessing of homeschooling is learning to be a team. It encourages your children to learn communication and team building skills that they just don’t get in a public school system…AND they’re not sitting around waiting for everyone else to catch up. I think you’re very wise to recognize that your child is bright, and therefore bored silly, with school as opposed to ADD…that happens soooo often! Another big plus is flexibility. One of the many reasons we decided to home-school was so that we could travel for work when necessary. It doesn’t happen nearly as often as it used to, but when we need to, we can just pick up and go…and take the work along, if necessary, or make it up later. For example, we started school a week early this year, then took a 4 day vaca after rates dropped. =) Less crowds, more relaxing, and half the price. 😉
I highly recommend it! Best wishes with making whatever decision is best for you and your fam! =)