Jumping Jacks

That picture makes me laugh. I guess you need to be in karate gear to do jumping jacks.

My mom is so innovative. She is truly a creative problem-solver. If she was applying for a job, and they asked for her strength, she could say that - "I'm a creative problem-solver."

I had to go to a ridiculous meeting for my daughter's Headstart preschool. Let me go off on a tangent for a minute here. So. This is the fourth time I've gone to this meeting, because each of my two eldest kids will have gone to Headstart for two years. The meeting is mandatory, and there are NO children allowed. No exceptions. The meeting is basically to let the parents know that the teachers are going to teach a unit on proper touch. And the parents can opt out if they want. I'm all for it - kids need to be aware of what is appropriate and what is not appropriate touch. (They don't get into the nitty gritty with the kids; they say that wherever your underwear covers shouldn't be touched, unless it is to keep the child "healthy and clean." So if they go to the doctor, or if Mommy is bathing them, etc.) I have three beefs about this meting. First beef: I've already gone to the meeting and seen the dang video three times. But they still made me go. Second beef: They didn't have child care available. Third beef: They hold this meeting, every year, one week before Christmas. That is the highest-stress time for me. I'm doing a billion gazillion things to prepare for the holidays. Could they not teach this unit and have this meeting earlier or later in the year?

Okay, rant over. Ben was going to be at work during the meeting, so I asked my mom to watch my kids, and she graciously agreed. I hadn't had time to help Dylan with his homework or nightly reading, because of the whole doing a bazillion gazillion things thing, so I asked Mom if she could do that for me while I was gone. I usually get books at the library that are for his reading level, but he was just dying for me to check out a Transformers book. It was at a higher level than he can easily do, but I figured I would just read it to him before bed or something, not in conjunction with his required reading. And I forgot to tell mom to avoid the Transformers book, that it was too hard for his required reading.

He had to read for half an hour, and it took him the whole half an hour to read that book, poor kid! And you know how hyper he is. Bouncing off the walls. Bouncing off the table. Running around, mid-sentence. Crazy hyper. Getting him to do his homework and reading every day is TOUGH. So when he started doing the bouncing thing, my mom came up with her innovative idea - she had him do ten jumping jacks after each page, just to help him get his wiggles out. I think that is so cute and funny. And a fantastic idea. I think I'm going to continue that tradition during homework time, yes indeedy.

I think my mom is so cute.