Adults only
Yes, this would be a post not suitable for young eyes and ears. Tonight brought quite an R-rated conversation that I had with my oldest son. My day went like this:
Another extensive day of academics, then extra-curriculars beginning at 4:30 with soccer for the boys and Hip-hop dance for my daughter (It’s actually, thankfully, very tasteful-no “Funky Cold Medina”). I made a quick trip to the grocery store while my daughter was in class (45 minutes) because our cupboards were bare. I picked her up from class, picked up my youngest from soccer, and drove quickly to the gym to take a class (Tabata) Work! Then, I went back to the turf field to pick up the other 2 boys from soccer. We arrived home around 8:30, and I began dinner-chicken Parmesan with precooked hormone-free patties. We ate dinner around 9:30, and they finally went to bed around 10:00.
So, now to my adult conversation with my son. It started out with me telling him about a book I’d purchased for him to read going in-depth on many issues such as porn and masturbation and STDs written from a Christian perspective. Then, he chimed in with questions about things that he’s seen or heard. We talked about condoms, oral sex, masturbation, STDs, AIDS, girls, protecting his body, and so forth. I hadn’t planned at all on having this conversation at 10:30 at night, but this is what developed as I sat beside him on his bed. He’s hearing and seeing different things from his friends and so forth, so he needed clarification and guidance on how to handle himself and the conversations. We ended our discussion with me emphasizing that he can always ask his dad and me anything, anytime. Such is the season that we are now in. This is reality for us, and I’m of the approach to discuss topics in real time with real facts. I don’t dance around issues. That probably stems somewhat from my personality and partly from my medical background. Equipping them to make wise decisions is a primary goal of mine as their decisions can have huge impacts not only on their own lives but on others, as well. Homeschooling offers you many opportunities to have these types of conversations, because you are with them so much. I’m thankful for those sweet moments. Parenthood is a dynamic process, to say the least.
The Fourth Child
Maybe you can relate to this..
Our fourth child seems to be the comic relief in our family, likely due in part to his birth order. He tends to be a little more laid back, also. When you have 3 other children in front of him, your energy is spread out, and you learn not to react to the little things going on. It’s more like you just throw food onto the high chair table and hope it works out that he teaches himself how to eat because you’re being consumed by everybody else.
Today, he gave me a good laugh while we were driving to preschool (all of our kids have attended outside preschool programs). Today was show-and-tell with the letter “T” so we were discussing all of the items that he could have taken for his presentation. He said with a serious tone, “Well, we can’t bring a girl’s private parts”. I paused for a moment as I processed what he had just said and then tried to figure out what he might be referring to. My first thought was “tit” referring to a woman’s chest, but I couldn’t believe he’d know that word yet. So, I went on to ask him what he was referring to. He said, “You know, toody”. I tried hard not to laugh. You see, in our household the word “toody” has sometimes taken the place of the word “vagina”. I don’t particularly like replacing anatomical words with obscure words like “toody” but for some reason this one has stuck with my kids. Now why he would have thought to say that he couldn’t take a “toody” to preschool.. I have no idea.
The conversation made me think about how different my children are from one another. Then, it made me wonder how in the world I’m going to teach all of them at one time as they get older! Will I just throw the books at the fourth kid and hope it works out for him? No, I can honestly say I don’t think I’ll do that because I’m a bit neurotic with academics and desire that they love to learn. That being said, I don’t know how I’ll do all of the little things to make it all come together. The big picture will be accomplished through His grace, so I’m going to give it my best shot. Big fan of homeschooling, BIG FAN.
P.S.-The above picture occurred after we’d just finished reading about the Olmec and Aztec Indians. My children thought it would be fun to paint their bodies like the Indians had done. You can imagine how my face looked after I saw what they had created, and I’m only showing you just a little bit of the art. Help me.
Ivy League Homeschooling 