creative home

I have been trying very, very hard to avoid turning on the television before lunchtime. I have been in the throes of some kind of depression for many years now, and combined with pregnancies, that has led me to plop my kid(s) in front of the tube waaaaaayyyyy too much. It's also a selfish and unfair way to buy myself time.

So now, in the mornings, we all have breakfast together in the kitchen (imagine!), while listening to the morning news on NPR, and I quickly check my email, facebook, and 3 or 4 favorite blogs. If Daughter finishes quickly, she can play with toys or do some coloring while waiting for AJ to finish. Then we go into the family room together and play with the dollhouse or some other creative-play item.

At 9:30 or 9:45 AJ goes up for morning nap, and it is "homeschool" time for Daughter. I will have more to say about that in the future, but for now I'll share that we are using Kumon workbooks to practice simple addition, long vowel sounds/printing, cutting, and pasting. When we finish that (usually takes about an hour), we move on to some kind of craft. I try to let Daughter direct what we will do, but some days I have to take the lead.

Today we made a Halloween mobile to hang on our front door. So if you come by, you'll be greeted by these guys:



I have trouble putting aside my OCD when it comes to a neat and organized home, because when we're done, this is what the kitchen table looks like:



Morning coffee cup, current and future knitting project, hole punches, scissors, construction paper scraps, glue, crayons, pencils, workbooks...

It's a bit of a disaster, really, but it's a creative disaster.