Week 5 of Phase II is off to a slow start. I started Phase II all gung ho and ready to go. Most of my exercises boxes were filled in and I was aggressively pushing through all obstacles. Well, almost all obstacles. I believe there is nothing that can slow a 50 year old woman down more than her 5 grandchildren. Yes, Jack helped me find a hotel with a decent gym that was not far from a 24 Hour Fitness. I did use the gym 3 times, but by the fourth morning an extra hour of sleep won out over an hour of exercise. And nothing was going to keep me from getting to Rebecca and the kids at a reasonably early time in the morning. As it worked out, those two days I missed were the first two days of week 5. Thursdays are my normal day off. I thought I might exercise this morning because of the two days I missed early in the week, but that didn't happen because we were up late last night bowling, (We won 3 out of 4 points!! We are starting to improve!!) and I am still recovering from my trip to Utah. I was tired when I got home! I am going to try to get to the gym today during lunch and I may swim this evening. I feel like I need to get something in to get back on track for the week. Tomorrow I work out with Jeremy. That is one good thing about working with a trainer once a week, you can never get too far off track!! This weekend should be "normal," whatever that means, and by the beginning of week 6 I should be back on track. But on my chart week 5 will definitely have some holes in it.
I am incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to spend 4 1/2 days with Rebecca and her family. They live too far away from us and we don't get to see them often enough. It was wonderful being there all day every day for four days because I felt like I got to know everyone a lot better. The kids are all very special, each in their own way, and Rebecca is an incredible mom. My favorite part of the day was school. It was fun to watch each child, even Caden as he wrote his name, did his ABCs, and read his story (he turns 4 in March), work hard on some subjects and breeze through others. It turns out the eldest doesn't particulalry like division, though her times tables are a breeze, and the almost 7 year old has amazing reading comprehension, but doesn't like to write out complete sentences. Helping them with their schoolwork brought me back to my elementary school days and I started wondering what I liked and didn't like to do back then. I seem to remember really disliking spelling, but the memories are pretty vague. Rebecca is homeschooling the kids, which is a huge commitment on her part, and the kids are so lucky to have this opportunity to learn at home. They move quickly through the lessons that are easy for them and have the time to work through the subjects that are more difficult. Each child gets the attention they need on the necessary subjects and for the most part (if not in every aspect) they are ahead of their peers in their lessons. It was pretty amusing watching the five year old who is in kindergarten. Some of his lessons were just plain silly, trying to teach him things that he must feel like he was born knowing. But other lessons were more difficult. Telling time was a little challenging, focusing on that little hand and whether or not it was before or after a particular number to determine the hour of the day. He had to determine which half hour each clock was closest to, which did seem kind of tricky for a five year old. He definitely had to think about it.
School is done for the day in a youngest to oldest order, and the kids sort of peel off and wander out of the classroom as they are done with their classes for the day. I don't think I ever saw the television get turned on while I was there. As school was done they would begin playing make believe games, read, play games, and engage their grandma in whatever activities they could coax me into. Zombie Attack was one of their favorites. It was one of many games that they made up while I was there. They are a creative bunch, no doubt about that. The homeschooling seems to foster that independence and creativity. They don't spend much time bored, waiting for instruction or for classmates to get caught up. They also don't spend much time frustrated with something they don't understand and waiting for help. They do have to take turns, so patience on everyone's part is an element of homeschooling when you have five kids, but each child gets what he or she needs on an individual basis. It's a pretty amazing process to watch and even more amazing to get to be part of, if even for a brief moment in their lives. I hope they all enjoyed it as much as I did!!
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