Party!

We went to my bff's 2ND son's 1st b day party today and had a really nice time, the kids got to play and eat cake :)they love cake....
Before we left F read a whole bunch of questions to his father from the Everything for kids almanac that we got a few mos. ago..he loves that book...he reads it at least 4 times a week if not more.
Yesterday we went to the monthly geography club meeting and had a great time with the group. F is getting better at reading out loud in front of the group..he's hardly nervous at all anymore. I asked him if he learned anything from the reports being given and he did..I was so happy that this is working out better than I expected. For the India report he waited until 2 days before to start writing it and he ended up writing for about 2 hours the last day but he did it and he really didn't complain...now he is starting to realize that he needs to start it earlier so he has it out of the way and he can do little by little, not all at once...finally!
The next country is Australia and he decide to write about the languages of the people there.
After the report we had some good Indian food (F helped me cook in the morning) and played for about 1 hour outside with the other kids. Everyone gets along with each other, the moms talk and clean up... it's nice.
Then we went for J's dance class again, came home and basically vegged out..we were so tired.....

Thursday we decided not to go to the library for chess because the weather was not so nice and we needed some stay at home time and the kids just wanted to play, the get very creative with it, they draw, build with blocks, do puzzles, chase each other around pretending to be ghosts, make firetrucks out of over sized boxes and do stuff like that for hours....just being kids... I think all the time that the kids in public school don't have this chance to be just be...to play, use their imagination when they feel like it, draw if the mood strikes them, pick up a book and read whenever they feel like it...not be told what to do and when to do it..I knows it's not like that in all schools I just see the different side of it now, and I see the difference in my son from a year ago when I first took him out..he is so much happier now, so much less anxious about everything. It's like a whole new world has opened for him.

When I hear parents say that their child is in a day care or Pre-K I feel sad because they are missing out, both the kids and the parent, and I do understand why kids are in day care/Pre-k because you have to provide for them by working, or going to school, it just makes me so thankful that I have the opportunity to stay at home with my kids and see every moment of their lives before it goes away all too soon. This is coming from a former day care teacher, and I loved my job. :) My kids were never in day care though, we alternated schedules so one of us was always home with them.