Choices

I'm sharing today. Another homeschooling mom, whose blog I try to frequent, recently shared a link that I would in turn like to share here. The article, "giving choices and setting boundaries", could be the written instruction booklet for how we've tried to approach parenting at our house. I was glad to find that we are in good company, and that someone has done the work of writing it down so eloquently. After almost five years (five!) we have found the philosophy of offering choices instead of demands to work very well, not because it leads to good behavior, but because it provides a sense of, and an ability for, independence. In the end that sense of individuality breeds self respect, which is what the rest of the world rather degradingly calls good behavior. It's a matter of perspective, or so my son tells me.

There was no rain today. None! We spent the morning on swimming, library, and a few other chores, but the afternoon we spent in the garden and then in the house with books and Legos, the windows open, the breeze blowing through, bringing the smells and sounds of a beautiful late spring day.

With glasses

When it was storming, it was storming, but when it was pretty it was the most pretty day of the week. That's easy to say, of course, because it's Monday. We did our weekly book sorting early so we could spend the rest of the day dashing between opening and closing the windows (open for breeze, closed for storms), and doing whatever we pleased. What we pleased turned out to be Legos, and the Wizard of Oz Sabuda pop-up. With glasses.

Antiquarian book fair

When we woke up this morning our backyard was practically under water. Surprise, surprise. The storm that flooded it (again) had woken us up in the middle of the night, giving us fair warning of what to expect, not that this spring's tendencies hadn't already done that. We have not seen the conduits in the neighborhood pond (drainage basin) for over a week now, the water level is so high. But in the wake of last night's storm was a brief respite, and our morning dawned clear and bright and warm.

Today was the Antiquarian Book Fair in Ann Arbor. It's been on our calendar for over a month now, an event we've been looking forward to, a chance to see, touch, and smell such books as we will probably never own, but love to hanker for. We leafed gently through a first edition Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Calvin found several early editions of other books from that series. Being an antiquarian book fair, not a library used book sale, we didn't expect to come home with armloads of great finds, but going seemed like a great way to share our love and respect for books with Calvin. He was the only child there and I think the ticket sellers were a little surprised, if not worried, by his attendance, but he was careful,, respectful the whole time, and clearly interested in the books. He asked several sellers if they had books by L. Frank Baum, and identified with genuine excitement, and to the surprise of many, such books as the Iliad and Arabian Nights. We can think of no better way to teach him the value and importance of things than to fully include him in our own enjoyment of them. And we did come home with a handful of pleasing finds, including the aforementioned Arabian Nights book, two d'Aualaire books (George Washington and Benjamin Franklin), and a 1950s edition of Winnie Ille Pu, or Winnie the Pooh in latin.

There was an additional joy to the morning, even aside from beautiful old books and beautiful weather, in visiting old haunts. The fair was set up in the Michigan Union Ballroom, the very place where Jon and I met, and later got married, so many years ago. The morning was warm with a gentle breeze, the sun bright, and, with many of the students gone for the summer, campus was quiet and clean. I realized this morning that, other than to attend Art Fair, when the campus is almost unrecognizable anyway, we have not taken Calvin to these places that are such giants in our past.

Now that the main University semesters are out for the summer the campus is quieter and more easily traversed, and while somewhere in the back of my mind I've been waiting for this before taking Calvin to the art and history museums, I'd forgotten to be aware that my chance had come. Now here it is. Seeing him on campus between the buildings that loom so largely through my past made him seem so much smaller to me, and this was only over by the Union, not on the main campus greens where I spent most of my waking, or walking, hours. Like taking him to the book fair, spending time on campus seems like a great way to share with him our value for that part of life, for continued learning, and learning, and learning. I feel fortunate to have the university, and all the opportunities it provides, so close by.

So we'll be back, although not likely this week. Since going to campus and visiting the buildings there means walking, the rain that is predicted for much of this week again is likely to put off our return for a while.

Can anyone say Bengay

We are all so tired tonight that we can barely move. Our day started early, which is always easier when the sun is out. I was at the library by 8:30 to oversee set-up and the first two hours of selling at the book sale and the guys were off for errands. We met back at home at 11:30, and that would be a quiet day if it had ended there. Instead we took up our earth moving tools and headed to the back yard where we remained, sans breaks for lunch and drinks every now and again, until the pizza we ordered arrived at 7:30. Or, actually, we came in fifteen minutes earlier to shower the dirt and grime off first. And thus we are are all so tired that we can barely move. At least Jon and I feel that way. Calvin is fast asleep.

There is much to show for our day, although when my hands are that dirty I don't take pictures. All the gardens are edged, weeded, and turned, the lawn is mowed, the hummingbird feeders are out, and the seed feeders are all full (although that is a constant job) and two new cypress trees, a service berry bush, and a lilac now fill out the back garden. Our work is done there! At least as far as major plantings, like trees and bushes, go. And that is if the birch we planted last fall comes back to life this year, though as of now it's seeming sluggish, maybe even unlikely. But while the evening sun faded we stood on the deck basking in the glow of our hard work. Today's hard work, last year's hard work, and the hard work from the year before. The yard is really getting there.

And another thing to show for our day. I came home from the book sale this morning with a fifth edition, second state, copy of the Wizard of Oz. Printed in the late 1920s it has eight color plates of Denislow's original illustrations. A real original, a real collection piece. Calvin is in love (and so am I).

If my hands stay cleaner tomorrow I'll come back with more pictures.

Frost warning in effect

I cannot keep talking about the disappointing weather, about the gray skies falling far short of a spring awakening. I cannot dwell on the late blooming of our flowers and the prolonged season of indoor amusements. There are only so many indoor amusements, you see. So I won't keep dwelling on them, but will put on extra layers and venture into the unwelcoming outdoors anyhow. So there. We have edged and cleaned up two of our garden areas so far, as well as watering the new trees. Now I hear that there is a frost warning for tonight, the third night of May, mind you, but I won't dwell on it. I'll just worry a bit about my flora. The sun was a visitor today, though, a relative novelty as far as things go, and that always adds to a day's enjoyment.

Yesterday morning Calvin announced to me that he wanted to learn about ancient Rome. I think I've been waiting for this for a while, longer than I've been waiting for the Dinosaur inquisition that never came. He is interested in ancient Rome, in part because of Pompeii (the volcano kick is still alive and well), and in part because my parents just came back form their Spain trip with stories of the Roman ruins they visited there. As soon as he mentioned this new interest we broke out the encyclopedia and I asked him what more he wanted to know. Then we started reading the Aeneid for Boys and Girls and today we picked up the appropriate Magic Treehouse books when we were out running errands (have I mentioned how much I love the 25% discount homeschoolers get from Borders?). And that's the road we are following at this moment while we wait for spring to actually show up in full regalia.