cleanliness

Here is a question for you: why is it that, at any given time in my life, I can only have one room in my house clean? I'm serious. For some reason, one room in my house can look like a Martha Stewart magazine spread (OK, never in this life, but it will be tidy and dusted, etc.), but every other room will look like a cyclone came through. If ever I am missing a child, I will just assume they have joined forces with Dorothy and are wrestling her for her silver slippers (yes, they are actually silver for those of you who never read the book).

Example: last week I was caught up on laundry. For all of one day. You wouldn't think that five people actually wore that many clothes, but they do. So laundry was all put away... but you couldn't see my desk upstairs. This week, my desk is like a pristine wilderness (or it was until Michael started cutting snowflakes and left his artwork on it), but I have a huge basket of laundry to fold in the kids' room. Plus my own clothes which need to washed today before they escape the laundry basket and take over my bedroom. That's just two rooms; I haven't even mentioned the bathrooms, which were clean last week (not the same day as the laundry was done), or the kitchen, which was spotless for about two hours until we decided to actually cook a meal in it. I won't even mention the playroom. Well, I'll mention it, but only to say that it is probably a lost cause, unless I can get ahead of it while we are taking our Christmas break from school.

Speaking of which, it's time for parent-teacher conferences around here, so as both the teacher and the parent, I will give you your Christmas update. Michael is doing extremely well in class this year. He consistently aces his spelling tests and really seems to understand how the phonograms work. His math is also excellent: he understands the concept behind multiplication quite well, but needs to practice so that the facts are at his fingertips. Same with addition and subtraction. He is adoring history and reading. Can't pull his nose out of a book, especially if it has anything at all to do with the ancient Greeks, the Trojan War, or Odysseus. He has almost finished his first grade study of animals and will be ready to move on to the human body in January. Did I miss anything? He needs to spend more time running around outside (those books again) and his teacher needs to get a better grip on arts and crafts so he can cut things apart and glue them together again. (Although I am proud to say that I helped him make a Christmas wreath for our door yesterday!)

Wow, that was dry, wasn't it? Suffice it to say that Michael seems to be enjoying this year of homeschooling. He has told me that he wants to continue it next year when we are back in Florida. Will we? I do not know. Since we are missing the school choice lottery, his chances of getting into the school I would like (because it has a full time gifted program and yes, I think he is gifted) are probably not great. It is also possible that this year of first grade may put him ahead of his peers and I'm shooting myself in the foot here anyway. I have to say that I like homeschooling a lot more than I thought I would. I love the idea and the possibilities, but I am not sure I love the idea of doing it for the duration. Michael is a very easy student. So is Caroline, but I have to go educate. More on this later.