Parenting Is Not For The Faint Of Heart.

Just one month after my 7 year old son's elbow has healed from a roller skating fracture, he comes running up the porch steps crying with a bloody mouth. He is surrounded by an emergency response team of kids all telling me at once what happened. Apparently, he was trying to pop a wheelie on his scooter and hit his mouth on the metal handle bar - ouch!

I manage to get my son inside and close the front door before my Jack Russell Terrier escaped into the nooks & crannies of our neighborhood. I sit my son down on a nearby overstuffed chair and grab a wet wash cloth, trying to comfort him and assess the damage. He has his fingers to his mouth and is shaking uncontrollably and is wailing in both fear and pain.

I get the sense that someone is watching us beyond my 3 year old and 5 year old who are asking over and over again what happened. I look to my left and see the ER team of kids with their noses pressed to glass of the front door, struggling to see what's happening inside our home. Finally, I get a look inside my son's mouth to see that he has lost the top 1/4 of his permanent bottom tooth. Chipped it right off.

Yes, parenting is not for the faint of heart.

Cut to today - we just returned from the dentist where my son had an x-ray and all looked well with the tooth's structure. He did indeed chip off the top and lost some enamel. Our dentist suggested just smoothing it out for now, until the rest of his teeth have a chance to grow in and cosmetically fixing it later, perhaps even after braces some day.

On the bright side, my son was very happy that he did not have to have a shot in order to have a filling. He has also admitted, however, there was a part of him that really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to finally have a real gold tooth. Since when is my child into bling??!!

Ah, yes...parenting is not for the faint of heart! :-)

One more reason I love homeschooling

I love Thursdays. It's the day where we don't have to be anywhere and can go with the flow at home. Today was a perfect example of that. After breakfast, we played a few math games, read, learned about the history of Shodo (Japanese calligraphy) and tried it out using a Shodo set while listening to Yo Yo Ma play Japanese Melodies over the kitchen speakers. My son said it was one of his favorite homeschooling experiences to date. Fantastic! Always love to hear that.




My youngest usually joins in on what we are doing in his own way or plays near us. Today I cozied up with him and read while my eldest son explored online at National Geographic for kids. All was flowing beautifully in our household...but as they say, this too shall pass...

My eldest son went up to his room to put something away and discovered that earlier his younger brother had completely dumped out his large US quarters collection map board. Not only had they been dumped, but many were missing. My 3 year old fessed up and promptly returned with his blue IKEA piggy bank & a butter knife in hand.

Then my two sons went to task at putting the map back together. They discovered they were only three states away from a complete map, so I brought out the loose change jug for them to dig through.

In the meantime, my eldest son found coins from France, Jamaica and Canada, which prompted us to look on our world map to see just where these places are. He taught his little brother the names of the different coins and together they discovered one more State quarter, Arizona...now they only need Oklahoma and New Mexico.



This is one of the many reasons I love learning at home...mishaps can turn into meaning and there is the time to slow down, work together and enjoy the moment.